Back into Focus: The Real Story of Robert Capa’s D-Day

334 pages

Andy Field

My first thought was that Charles Herrick had some sort of axe to grind concerning the photographer, Robert Capa, and his photos. In part, he does; not exactly an axe grinding exercise, his book carefully researches and debunks Capa’s stories about his role and his photos.  Charles Herrick, an ex- US Army Ranger, has undertaken some rigorous research to support his case about Capa, to whom, truth was apparently less important than the story, allowing Herrick to question whether Robert Capa was the hero he liked to portray himself as, or whether he was manipulated by, and went along with, the version  of events invented by Life magazine. The caveat, as Herrick warns, is that trying to trace the truth about Capa’s activities is often futile.

Capa’s D-Day exploits and photographs from Omaha beach are Herrick’s main focus. They include the iconic ‘Face in the Surf’, a blurred picture, apparently showing a GI, under fire, sheltering behind a beach obstacle.

According to Capa, these were taken after he landed with the first assault waves, and this has become the accepted version of events. This is comprehensively debunked by Herrick, along with the reasons behind there were so few other photos from Capa. Again, the accepted version is that only 11 images survived a darkroom accident, back in London. Herrick shows readers why this could not have been so, building up a convincing case, based on his research and reading of the evidence.

One of his contentions is that Life magazine wanted its readers to believe that Capa was with the first wave, (he was not, he inadvertently landed with the thirteenth wave.) This would sell more copies of the magazine and was a story that Capa was happy to go along with. It suited his self-image and self-made reputation as a combat photographer. As Herrick’s suggests, Capa would happily re-frame any narrative of events to boost his reputation.

Instead, Herrick makes a strong case that Capa never intended to land on Omaha beach, instead photographing the troops debarking, before taking his exposed film back to England. Herrick suggests that whilst standing on the ramp, he was mistaken by the crew of the landing craft for one of the disembarking, but hesitant, infantrymen, and was unceremoniously and literally, booted off. Confused, ill equipped and panicked, Capa sought shelter, shooting some photographs, pointing seawards, including ‘Face in the Surf’, before finding another landing craft to board and get back to the transports.

This was not the narrative that Life wanted for its big-name war photographer. The facts had to be manipulated to fit the reputation; Capa’s unremarkable photos and his story had to be transformed. They became combat photos, taken in the heat of combat, hence their blurriness, and there were so few because the rest had been ruined in a “darkroom incident”, or as later accounts claimed, “spoilt by seawater”, possibly a euphemism for being withheld by the censor.

Certainly, this is, to Herrick, a more convincing story. Capa had already taken shots on the run up to D-Day, and these made it into print. Once embarked, Herrick believes that Capa took many more shots of the invasion fleet, and that these fell victim to the censor’s red pencil when they eventually reached London.

He suggests that they showed both the size and scope of the invasion fleet, a clear sign that this was the real invasion. However, planning for OVERLORD had included a deception plan, Operation FORTITUDE, with dummy armies gathering opposite the Pas de Calais, aimed at convincing the Germans that this would be the major site for the invasion of Europe. If Capa’s photographs showing the size of the invasion fleet had been released, there was a real danger that the Germans would have released forces from the Pas de Calais area and sent them south. Hence the photos were withheld. There was no accident in a darkroom, no damage by seawater. These were just myths, concocted by either the London or New York offices of Life.

So how should Capa and his legacy should be viewed. He was, and remains, a highly regarded photographer, but his reputation is seemingly based on falsehoods. And there are other questions. Was he any better photographer than, say, Joe Rosenthal, who took an equally iconic photo, the flag raising on Iwo Jima?

That brings into question the images themselves. Although Capa’s and Rosenthal’s photos have achieved iconic and aesthetic status, neither are what they purport to be. Capa’s are not a series of photos of the first wave going ashore and Rosenthal photographed a second flag raising. Are they, then, of less value?

They are, as previously stated, iconic. They tell a story and represent events. Other organisations often used posed images, in newsreels such as March of Time, or documentaries such as Desert Victory. Even today editors on TV documentaries routinely use the “wrong” images to support their narrative, whilst in the era of social media and digital manipulation, mis-using, faking or manipulating images is common. The recent Houthis video, supposedly “sinking” a US aircraft carrier is just one example that springs to mind.

So, an interesting book, that raises questions, not just about Robert Capa and his images, but about the wider use and manipulation of imagery to support a narrative. Definitely not quite the usual book to review for Naval Review, but one that I found intriguing. If you are interested in the topic, I would recommend it.