Coleman and Herrick state and/or imply on multiple occasions that Capa wasn’t in any real danger, that enemy fire on Easy Red sector at that time was light. His pictures don’t show any splashes in the water from bullets, they say. Herrick even points out that Capa’s photographs depict engineers setting charges to the hedgehogs as evidence that the men were working, not cowering. He says that the men huddled on one of the hedgehogs would have been exposed to fire, had there been any of significance.
I think if I were tying dynamite to a hedgehog with no one shooting at me, I would stand up or kneel, rather than lay on my belly in wet sand, trying to hold my head and three-pound helmet up, fighting my rucksack, while handling explosives on my elbows. All of these pictures show men on the seaward side of obstacles, away from the beach and German guns.
Negative 35, cropped version of Figure 2. Note the orientation of the landing craft in the background. They are lined up perpendicular to the shore, but seen broadside here. Capa’s camera was pointed in a northeast direction in this picture. These men are facing the southwest, behind Hedgehog C. Directly ahead of them, on the west side of the beach, is the location witnesses report as the source of machine gun fire that had them pinned down.
In fact, Herrick inadvertently made the point that these men were under intense fire while claiming that they were not. In his book (page 140), he constructed a bird’s-eye view of the men, showing their positions. However, he erroneously determined the men’s orientation to the shore. Negative 35 (Figure 2) clearly shows the starboard side of the distant landing craft, meaning Capa’s camera was pointed to the northeast. Herrick’s rendition of the men shows them lying perpendicular to the shoreline. Capa’s pictures tell us how these men were positioned, about 45 degrees along a northeast axis. Herrick argues that the men around the hedgehog in negative 35 are exposing themselves to a large German gun, WN 62, to their east, which they would not have done if they had been under fire from this weapon.
WN 62, if operable at that point,* probably was concentrating its 50mm and 75mm anti-tank rounds on the tanks and ships, rather than wasting them on men. Several eyewitness accounts bear this out. Besides, if a big gun hit those men, it would have destroyed the obstacles, and Rommel would not have been too happy about that! Machine guns were used on the men, artillery on the tanks and boats.
In Appendix A (subsequent post), I will quote witnesses who said the machine gun fire was coming from beach right, southeast of the hedgehog. These men are all lying opposite the position of the German machine gun that was behind Capa, sheltering behind the hedgehog. Did you catch that? The machine gun fire was coming from behind Capa as he shot this photo.
Capa’s location on Easy Red, and the two hedgehogs in Negative 35 with landing craft to the northeast. The darker grey represents the field of view of Capa’s Contax. The largest weapon in WN62 was a 50mm antitank weapon. Eyewitnesses say the area was being sprayed with machine gun fire from their right (MG). The men behind the obstacles are oriented for protection from the machine gun, not from WN62. (Not to scale)
Even though Capa did not claim it, Baughman wondered cynically if Capa's experience was like the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's, Saving Private Ryan, which he derided as a Hollywood "trope," to which Herrick replied that the shooting was more intense on other parts of Omaha Beach than where Capa landed.18
Capa may have been under lighter fire than other sectors, but he was under fire nonetheless, and fire is fire. The Germans concentrated much of their defense efforts at Easy Red, not only with big gun emplacements, but hundreds of soldiers manning machine guns and other small arms.15 That’s a frightening situation, because death is completely random. You’re just as dead if one bullet hits you as you are if ten do.
*John McManus considers WN62 the most formidable of all Wilderstandsnest (WN) emplacements in Normandy. This massive structure had 50mm Tobruks, 50 and 75mm anti-tank guns, and a variety of machine guns. John C. McManus. The Dead and Those About to Die. 2019, First Dutton Caliver edition (eBook).
Edited 5/26/2025 to add references and notation
15. Ambrose, p. 320
18 1. https://www.nearbycafe.com/artandphoto/photocritic/2014/06/06/guest-post-11-j-ross-baughman-on-robert-capa/