World War II Database

1. USNbubblehead says:
28 Apr 2015 08:40:49 AM

There's an interesting story behind these Robert Capa D-day photos according to historian Stephen Ambrose.

Capa went in with the first wave, and quickly began photographing the chaotic scene. When he felt he snaped enough, he boarded the next available outgoing LCVP with his film. The film was hurried off to the darkroom; these were exclusive photos of a major historic event after all. The darkroom assitant, in a rush, turned up the heat too much when drying the negatives. Most of the emulsions melted and ran. Only eight photos survived, of which this is one. The grainy nature of the photo is due to the overzealous darkroom assistant, yet many agree that this enhances the drama of the shots.

2. BinThere says:
24 Mar 2019 08:18:12 PM

Capa's transport had no landing craft touching down till 0740 hours so he couldn't have landed in the first wave (which was DD tanks after all). He actually came in with Wave 13 at 0820 hours, or 1 hour 50 minutes after H-Hour. The melted film emulsion story has recently been proven impossible. Ten photos from his landing 'survived' - that is, still exist - as did 11 from after he left the beach. Photocritic International has an excellent series examining the Capa myth. Ambrose merely parroted the myth.

3. Anonymous says:
18 Jun 2019 09:03:44 AM

The melted film story is one of the most widely spread stories of D-Day. The recent examination of this story does a great job of breaking down the myth. Even today though the photos are so mis-captioned that it's unlikely that the truth will ever beat the myth.

4.  C. Peter Chen says:
14 Nov 2024 12:49:02 PM

Australian War Memorial's caption for this photo:

An Associated Press public relations photograph of American troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment sheltering from German machine gun fire and artillery amongst beach obstacles on Omaha Beach during the Normandy D-Day landings on the 6 June 1944. This was one of the 'famous eleven' photographs taken by combat photographer Robert Capa during the D-Day landings, and was widely distributed in the press during the war.