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Alternate History: Robert Capa on D-Day (25)

Hiding in the surf behind the disabled assault vehicle as Capa did represented just one option at that juncture. The battle had already begun to move off the beach and up the ridge; Capa could have followed the action and gone along. After all, that’s why LIFE had given him this highly coveted front seat. […]

Alternate History: Robert Capa on D-Day (10)

In his own account of boarding the LCI which took him away from Omaha Beach, Capa describes an explosion that takes place moments after he came aboard, killing several crew members. Based on Lewis’s diary entry, that happened just minutes after they disembarked their troops — somewhere around 0750. If these details add up, then, Capa reached Omaha Beach at 0725 at the very earliest, and clambered into the relative safety of the LCI at 0750, just 25 minutes later. That boat departed Omaha Beach at at 0837. So Capa was at Omaha Beach for a maximum of 72 minutes, following the second-wave troops and photographing them for less than half an hour. […]