Once Capa stepped into the surf, he seems to have completely forgotten about the battle on shore. Each and every shot was angled at least partly — if not entirely — seaward. This tells me that he was primarily looking for a means to depart. Capa’s picture-taking stopped almost immediately upon LCI(L)-94 showing up in his viewfinder. Which suggests that he’d seen his means of escape and was moving to get aboard. […]
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The question becomes this: does the photo show LCI(L)-94 already retracting after its first landing? These two timelines argue that Capa landed first, and subsequently photographed LCI(L)-94 during its first approach to the beach. […] This would seem to prove definitively that Capa’s account of his boarding of LCI(L)-94 is not accurate. There simply wasn’t time for him to go to the engine room, thoroughly dry off, smoke a couple of cigarettes, pick off all the kapok debris, change film (maybe?) and regain his composure in time to go back above decks and start taking pictures just off the beach. […] At this point there remains just one aspect of Capa’s D-Day adventure left to examine: his departure from Omaha Beach aboard LCI(L)-94 (which stands for Landing Craft Infantry (Large)-94). Let’s see how his description of this phase of his adventure stands up to scrutiny. […] 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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