Man, that view is terrifying – running into that and not knowing how many guns are pointed at you. Those are some brave guys.
The original anti fa.
Even today that beach is a very eerie place. Even in broad daylight in the summer. I can’t really put my finger on what it is but many old battlefields seems to be….haunted?
My uncle was there as a 19 year old, only thing he ever told me was on the beach he lost his innocence. He lived until he was 92 and refused to ever talk about it.
This image was taken by Robert Capa at Omaha Beach.
Only 11 images survived from the many roles of film he shot on Omaha Beach. The reason is that the guy who developed them in the dark room was rushed to get the images to print and he tried to get them dry quickly, melting the film in the process.
This is the reason most of the images Capa took that day look blurry – the negatives had been melted.
Just recently finished reading about this day in “WN 62” by Hein Severloh, a German machine gunner who likely killed more than a thousand men that day. (Iirc, his estimate is that 25%-50% of US losses during the invasion were due to bullets fired by him.) He was the last machine gun firing in the sector and basically stopped the advance at his strip of the beach on his own. It was really strange reading about it from his perspective, talking about overheating barrels and even taking smoking breaks, knowing what hell he created for the men on that beach.
I can only recommend that book (available in German, English, and French afaik) as it gives a very different perspective of that day, giving you a better picture of the horrors that transpired and why they transpired.
Ah, a picture of my grandpa. Difficult to see through the fog though. /j
It’s a response video to the inaccuracies popularized in Saving Private Ryan but does a really good job explaining indepth just how ingenious the german defense was and why it resulted in so many casualties taking it.
If you’ve never visited those beaches, it’s hard to understand just how open they are and what a shooting gallery it was. When I visited, the absolute lack of cover is what struck me first. Barren and void of safety. It must have been terrifying running from those landing craft.
I really can’t imagine being in their position about to hit that beach, must have been fucking horrific experience.
For sure i wouldn’t meet my grandfather there, that was on the opposing side in Northern Italy around that time.
Regardless, they were the real liberators, europe should be grateful for not being fully steamrolled by horde of stalin.
Through the gates of hell
Real men.
6TH OF JUNE 1944, ALLIES ARE TURNING THE WAR
it would be necessary to remember the names of the war reporters who risked, and often lost their lives to give us these images.
15 comments
the proto-boomers knew how to instagram that shit
Man, that view is terrifying – running into that and not knowing how many guns are pointed at you. Those are some brave guys.
The original anti fa.
Even today that beach is a very eerie place. Even in broad daylight in the summer. I can’t really put my finger on what it is but many old battlefields seems to be….haunted?
My uncle was there as a 19 year old, only thing he ever told me was on the beach he lost his innocence. He lived until he was 92 and refused to ever talk about it.
This image was taken by Robert Capa at Omaha Beach.
Only 11 images survived from the many roles of film he shot on Omaha Beach. The reason is that the guy who developed them in the dark room was rushed to get the images to print and he tried to get them dry quickly, melting the film in the process.
This is the reason most of the images Capa took that day look blurry – the negatives had been melted.
Just recently finished reading about this day in “WN 62” by Hein Severloh, a German machine gunner who likely killed more than a thousand men that day. (Iirc, his estimate is that 25%-50% of US losses during the invasion were due to bullets fired by him.) He was the last machine gun firing in the sector and basically stopped the advance at his strip of the beach on his own. It was really strange reading about it from his perspective, talking about overheating barrels and even taking smoking breaks, knowing what hell he created for the men on that beach.
I can only recommend that book (available in German, English, and French afaik) as it gives a very different perspective of that day, giving you a better picture of the horrors that transpired and why they transpired.
Ah, a picture of my grandpa. Difficult to see through the fog though. /j
[This video does a great job explaining the horrors of Omaha Beach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp875ATM0ZE&list=WL&index=12)
It’s a response video to the inaccuracies popularized in Saving Private Ryan but does a really good job explaining indepth just how ingenious the german defense was and why it resulted in so many casualties taking it.
If you’ve never visited those beaches, it’s hard to understand just how open they are and what a shooting gallery it was. When I visited, the absolute lack of cover is what struck me first. Barren and void of safety. It must have been terrifying running from those landing craft.
I really can’t imagine being in their position about to hit that beach, must have been fucking horrific experience.
For sure i wouldn’t meet my grandfather there, that was on the opposing side in Northern Italy around that time.
Regardless, they were the real liberators, europe should be grateful for not being fully steamrolled by horde of stalin.
Through the gates of hell
Real men.
6TH OF JUNE 1944, ALLIES ARE TURNING THE WAR
it would be necessary to remember the names of the war reporters who risked, and often lost their lives to give us these images.