For the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we feature a selection of photographs from the Edward J. Steichen Collection. Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was a prominent art and commercial photographer who headed the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit during World War II. The unit was responsible for documenting the activities of aircraft carriers, primarily in the Pacific theater of operations. The photographers under Steichen's command recorded the role of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard on land, sea, and air. Steichen edited their work, saw that it was printed to the highest standards, and released it to major magazines and newspapers. Some of the photographers were also present for campaigns in the Atlantic, and these photographs are included in the 3,003 combat prints that form the core of the Steichen collection. Thomas J. Maloney, editor of U.S. Camera and a lifelong friend and associate of Steichen, established the collection at Nimitz Library on Steichen's 90th birthday.
The Public Relations Division of the U.S. Coast Guard released the photograph above the week of July 29, 1944 for the 154th anniversary of the Coast Guard with the following caption:
"COAST GUARDSMEN HEAD FOR THE COAST OF FRANCE ON D-DAY: Coast Guard-manned LCIs move across the English Channel under their barrage balloons for the historic D Day landing on the coast of Normandy. Coast Guardsmen also operated assault transports, LSTs, LCVPs, and rescue cutters in the liberation drive across the channel."
"PRELUDE TO EUROPE"S LIBERATION: American troops, aboard a Coast Guard-manned LCIL (Landing Craft Infantry, Large), pack the decks in H Hour maneuvers before the invasion of France which began on a terrific scale with sea and air-borne forces before dawn "D" Day. Four thousand ships, many manned by U.S. Coast Guardsmen, struck the initial blow to shatter Hitler's domination of western Europe."
"FIRST WAVE GOES OVER THE SIDE: Bound for the liberation of Western Europe, Yankee soldiers pile over the side from a Coast Guard assault transport off the French Coast and into the landing barges. It is H Hour and minutes later Coast Guard landing barges swarmed upon the beaches of Normandy to write with bullets a new chapter in history."
"INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH: Down the ramp of a Coast Guard landing barge, Yankee soldiers storm toward the beach-sweeping fire of Nazi defenders in the D Day invasion of the French Coast. Troops ahead may be seen lying flat under the deadly machinegun resistance of the Germans. Soon the Nazis were driven back under the overwhelming invasion forces thrown in from Coast Guard and Navy amphibious craft."
A U.S. Army Signal Corps photograph showing landing craft headed towards the Normandy beaches.
Landing craft approach the beach in another U.S. Army Signal Corps photograph.
Soldiers ready to hit the beach (U.S. Army Signal Corps).
"Establishing the Beachhead--Capt. Herman Wall, Signal Corps."
The caption for the above photograph appeared in the U.S. Camera Annual for 1945, The U.S.A. at War. The accompanying text explained that this image had been taken by former professional photographer Captain Herman Wall of the Signal Corps. His "D-Day pictures were the first to bring the evidence that invasion had actually begun. Wounded severely by a beach-mine shortly after this photograph was made, Wall sent his films back to England by carrier pigeon, was one of the first casualties" (p.197). The images in the annual were selected by Commander Edward Steichen, USNR and edited by Tom Maloney.
Soldiers on the beach (U.S. Army Signal Corps).
The captions with the Coast Guard photographs were released with the images at the time of their publication. To see more combat photographs from the Steichen Collection, please visit the Special Collections & Archives Department's Combat Photographs digital collection.
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