The last time we saw Capa he was standing on the ramp of his LCVP, invasion pictures safely in the camera, and he was ready to get back to the mother ship and then on to Weymouth, England, where he would send his film to John Morris at the Life offices in London.
Unfortunately for Capa, at this point the boatswain literally kicked him off the LCVP and into the water, presumably because he was loitering on the ramp that needed to be lifted so that they could retreat. This is entirely plausible because some of the coxswains were very nervous about making the landings and even emptied their cargo prematurely to avoid enemy fire.15
Negative 32 tells us that the shoreline was between 270 and 300 feet from Capa while he was standing on the LCVP. He estimated the beach at “more than a hundred yards away,” which roughly agrees with the calculated distance, given the circumstances.
Once in the water, Capa “made for the nearest steel obstacle.” It is widely assumed that this was a steel Czech hedgehog (HHA or HHB in Negative 35, Figure 2), because the other obstacles were wooden. Capa even mentions taking pictures at the steel obstacle, but he did not do this with Contax A. At his first stop he took, “pictures of the other guys hiding just like I was.” These would be negatives 34, 35, 36 and 38. Negatives 34 and 38 are primarily of the wooden ramps, with men under and behind them. These structures had been placed further seaward than the hedgehogs.16
While Capa described making photographs of the “other guys” from his first stop, his negatives tell us that he did not shoot from a hedgehog. For one thing, his photographs show only one row of hedgehogs between the LCVP and the shore. Also, Negative 35 proves that he was 36 feet (13 yards) inland from the hedgehogs (Figure 2), which would have placed him at the other nearby steel obstacle, Tank 10.
Tank 10 was 116 feet (39 yards) from the LCVP, closer to shore. Therefore, since negatives 34, 35, 36 and 38 were made from the “nearest steel obstacle,” that obstacle must have been Tank 10. Herrick also estimated that the photos were taken from Tank 10, but he stated Capa claimed he stopped at a hedgehog. A careful reading of Capa’s memoir reveals that he talked about a steel obstacle with steel arms, which sounds like a hedgehog. It is possible that, three years later when he wrote his memoirs, he remembered stopping briefly at the hedgehog and believed he took some photos from it. There is no photographic evidence that he did, however. I believe by “obstacle,” Capa merely meant a place to hid behind. Having spent several months in combat myself, I also believe that the fog of war probably scrambled Capa’s memory of this detail.
Tank 10 was an obstacle in the sense that it protected him from German fire, which was probably all he cared about at that time. Being much larger, it was a better obstacle than a hedgehog. It would have made sense to run the extra distance to reach a much larger obstacle.
In fact, Wertenbaker quotes Capa as saying, “…I hid behind some tanks that were firing on the beach. After twenty minutes I suddenly realize that this is not a good place to be. The tanks were a certain amount of cover from small arms fire, but they were what the Germans were shooting at. So I made for the beach.” 17 This is the first stop that Capa described in Slightly Out of Focus.
As I described in the previous “bonus” post, this location at Tank 10 also explains the relationships in negative 37, the iconic “Face in the Surf” image. My first calculation was less accurate because it was based on a reconstruction by Tristan Da Cunha of the missing negative. I recommend downloading a PDF of his excellent study.** The picture tells us that soldier was 22 feet from Capa’s camera. The picture included hedgehogs A and B in the background, along with a log ramp that is clearly seen in negatives 30 through 33. This photograph could only have been made at the rear of Tank 10.
It is unlikely that Capa would have taken Negatives 34, 35 and 36 from one spot, then run to Tank 10 to take Negative 37, then return to take Negative 38.
Negative 37. The identity of this soldier is controversial, as well.
Close analysis of negatives 34, 35, 36 and 38 shows that Capa was not standing still while making these pictures. After taking 34, Capa pivoted 45 degrees northeast to take 35. After taking 35, he shifted to his left and toward shore to take 36. After 36 he pivoted 65 degrees to his left to take negative 37, after which he turned right 105 degrees and shifted his body position to his right and closer to shore to take negative 38.
As Herrick has shown, Capa’s original plan probably was to take pictures from the LCVP, head back to the USS Chase and then on to England to the be first to deliver his film. That all changed with a swift kick to his backside. Rather than panicking at this point, as Coleman and colleagues contend, he may have seen this as an opportunity to obtain more pictures. He had the presence of mind to seek shelter and then take pictures. He could move forward to take more.
The Coleman Clan contend that Capa was in the water only a brief time, and that shortly after he saw the distant ship while making negative 37, he ran for that ship and boarded it. Yet, negative 38 tells us he kept shooting after he saw the ship. The Coleman Clan take as a given that the very blurry ship in the background of negative 37 is LCI(L)-94,* the ship on which Capa departed, and it may have been. Herrick presented a lot of circumstantial evidence that it was the 94. However, other LCI’s were arriving and departing in that same area, which I will explore in a later blog post.
* LCI(L) stands for landing craft infantry (large). 94 is the ship number.
** https://tdacunha.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Robert-Capa-and-the-mystery-of-the-lost-photos-2.pdf
15. Ambrose, p. 320
16. https://explore.britannica.com/study/omaha-beach-typical-cross-section-and-obstacles
17. Wertenbaker, pp. 42-3
5/24/2025. Several small edits made immediately after posting.