It’s been my unhappy experience to discover that the majority of first-person D-Day stories are to some degree inaccurate. Often this is because the individual experienced such a narrow view of the massive operation that he misinterpreted what he saw. In other cases, it is a result of fading memory or unintentional exaggeration. And then there are the cases in which people alter the facts to enhance their reports or their reputations. […]
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However garbled we find Samuel Fuller’s version of what Capa told him, and no matter how far-fetched the specific detail of a “cocky German officer” seems, there’s no reason to doubt that the meeting between Capa and Fuller took place, nor that their conversation included an exchange about Capa’s D-Day experiences and the photographs he made that day. […] In my opinion, da Cunha’s work constitutes not only an exemplary achievement in the context of the Capa D-Day investigation but a major contribution to the forensic analysis of photographic materials, one that sets a benchmark for future inquiries. […] So when did Capa board LCI(L)-94? I believe it was at the end of the ship’s first beaching, before it shifted 100 yards down the beach. But that would have been a far less dramatic tale, so he crafted a hodge-podge story based on details he later observed around the ship and inserted himself into it. […] Capa had transferred from LCI(L)-94 to the attack transport ship USS Samuel Chase (APA-26), and there he took at least one photo of LCI(L)-85 as it was moored alongside the Chase, transferring off wounded shortly before it sank. It seems Capa appropriated events that he had seen others experience, and wove them into his own story as though they had happened to him. […] |
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