It is from these two real observations that the story of “Bloody Omaha” was constructed and that it spread very soon after the landings: the most deadly beach overall and the shock of the first wave on certain sectors. It is by following the history of the construction of this narrative that we can understand how Capa’s famous photographs were received and interpreted, and where the (false) idea that they were taken during a terribly deadly assault, that of the first wave at Omaha Beach, came from. […]
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[Editor’s Note: Combat veteran and amateur military historian Charles Herrick’s crucial earlier posts in this series corrected 70 years’ worth of miscaptioning of one of Robert Capa’s ten D-Day photographs from Omaha Beach, and pinpointed the exact location and approximate time at which he landed on the Easy Red sector with a later wave. In […] It appears that Capa was taking a picture in the general direction of LCI(L)-94 at about the same time someone on that LCI was taking a picture while pointing his lens toward Capa. Comparing the two images, we find the same obstacles are visible in both. […] Capa’s account of his landing in his book “Slightly Out of Focus” clearly had been “pumped up” for sales. Capa apparently lifted the carnage that occurred elsewhere on Omaha Beach and superimposed it on his own much less deadly experiences. One only has to take a fresh, unbiased look at his photos for proof. […] Intermittent enemy artillery fire covered the area of the “Roman ruins” on the Easy Read sector of Omaha Beach, where Capa landed, but it primarily targeted larger landing craft, and was not capable of stopping an infantry advance. The area of the ruins was in fact a seam in the enemy defenses, one that would prove fatal to the Germans and a godsend to the Americans. […] |
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