Robert Capa - Day D

 

June 6th was the aniversary of the 'Battle of Normandy' also known by the code name "Operation Overlord". It was the offensive carried out by the Allies during World War II to bring the war to the European continent. The war would end with the liberation of Western European countries occupied by Hitler's Germany.

D-Day Landing, Omaha Beach. Robert Capa

English version

The operation began on June 6, 1944, 78 years ago. It is also known as "D-Day", with the amphibious operations that led to the Normandy landings.

All naval operations would be code-named as 'Operation Neptune'. The amphibious operations were accompanied by a large airborne assault. 1,200 aircrafts participated and this preceded the amphibious landing, where nearly 5,000 ships intervened.

On June 6th, 160,000 Allied soldiers crossed the English Channel between England and France. Towards the end of August, the allied troops that had landed on French soil already exceeded three million soldiers.

D-Day Landing, Omaha Beach. Robert Capa

The landing was immortalized by the well-known photographer Robert Capa through a series of pictures called "The Magnificent 11". Those were taken in the morning of Day-D from Omaha beach 

Capa accompanied the soldiers who landed there. The rawness of the images speaks for itself of what the landing implied for all the contenders.

Photo: D-Day Landing, Omaha Beach. Robert Capa

Years before, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, Robert Capa became famous by capturing a snapshot in which a militiaman fell dead and would end up being a symbol of the Spanish Civil War.

Photomontage photo Robert Capa. "Death of a militiaman". Spanish Civil War.©

The photograph was published for the first time in the magazine n.447 of Vu on September 23, 1936, which included a report entitled Comment sont-ils tombés (How they fell).

Song Taro, inspired by Robert Capa

Sources

https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/dia-d-playas-desembarco-normandia_12788

https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/desembarco-normandia-imagenes_12771

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muerte_de_un_miliciano

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batalla_de_Normand%C3%ADa


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Pictures: Author, Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, Wikiart.

Except where explicitly stated, this work belongs to Jose Mª Maestre Domínguez, and is licensed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” license.