U.S. Assault Team Landing at Omaha Beach

Image size: 1600 x 1600 pixel. 519 KB
Date: Tuesday, 6 June 1944
Place: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France
Photographer: Robert F. Sargent

In what has become one of the most famous photographs of D-Day, Chief Photographer’s Mate Sargent captures the men of the same assault boat team seen in his previous photograph as they wade through the surf in front of the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach at approximately 7:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944. These E Company / 16th Infantry Regiment /1st Infantry Division ("The Big Red One") troops are assaulting the area between Exit E-1 and Exit E-3 under fire from Widerstandsnest 62 and Widerstandsnest 65. On the beach directly ahead of the ramp can be seen M4 Sherman tank Number 9 from A Company, 741st Tank Battalion.While capturing an iconic moment of the twentieth century, this photograph is also perhaps one of the most frequently incorrectly attributed. Often it is credited as part of the series of eleven shots taken by the famous Life magazine photographer, Robert Capa. The photograph was in fact taken by Robert F. Sargent, Chief Photographer’s Mate, United States Coast Guard. Landing craft operated by the Coast Guard continuously ferried soldiers from ships to the Normandy shore: the photograph was titled 'Taxis to hell – and back – into the jaws of death'. The combat photographs taken at Omaha beach by Sargent and Capa have become symbolic of something bigger than just a single moment in time. They have come to represent, in the words of Churchill, “much the greatest thing we have ever attempted”.

Source :
U.S. Coast Guard Collection in the U.S. National Archives 26-G-2343

"The Americans on D-Day: A Photographic History of the Normandy Invasion" by Martin K.A. Morgan
https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/66/Capa

Canadian Tanks Landed at Reggio Calabria

Image size: 1600 x 1482 pixel. 289 KB
Date: Saturday, 4 September 1943
Place: Reggio Calabria, Southern Italy
Photographer: Alex Stirton

4 September 1943. This picture by Alex Stirton shows a tank from C Squadron of The Canadian Calgary Regiment is unloaded from LST F16 at Reggio Calabria on D plus one. The diary from Doc Alexander - a member of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps - reported: "Sept. 4: Loaded on LCT at 5 p.m. And sailed up the Messina Straits about twenty-five miles, then turned due East and sailed into the beach just north of Reggio. Landed at 10 p.m., a perfectly peaceful landing. Moved into the Town and bedded down for the night". A day previously, the Calgary Regiment assaulted the beaches of Reggio Calabria to little resistance and moved northwards with notable engagements in Potenza, Motta and Campobasso while supporting the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. During the World War II, due to its strategic military position, Reggio Calabria suffered a devastating air raid and was used as the invasion target by the British Eighth Army in 1943 which led to the city's capture. After the war Reggio recovered considerably.

Source :
https://docalexander.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/sept-3-4-1943-invasion-of-italy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Calabria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Own_Calgary_Regiment_(RCAC)
http://mapleleafup.tumblr.com/page/7

US Rangers Aboard their Landing Craft Before Normandy Invasion

Image size: 1600 x 1091 pixel. 563 KB
Date: Saturday, 3 June 1944
Place: Weymouth Harbour, Dorset, England
Photographer: Unknown

U.S. Rangers from E Company, Fifth Ranger Battalion, aboard their landing craft on Weymouth Harbor, Dorset (England), waiting for the signal to sail to the coast of Normandy, 3 June 1944. In the foreground, they are, clockwise from far left, First Sergeant Sandy Martin, Technician Fifth Grade Joseph Markovich, Corporal John Loshiavo and Private First Class Frank Lockwood, with their Bazooka, Garand rifle, 60-mm mortar and Lucky Strikes. Before they boarded their vessel, these Rangers — four of perhaps 160,000 soldiers who would cross the English Channel — were penned up, away from public view, in camps policed by British officers in machine-gun towers. As they waited for their signal, soldiers of Operation Overlord hurled Army knives at playing cards nailed onto trees, played softball and, ducking into an entertainment tent, watched “Girl Crazy,” starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. But their nerves were strained; sometimes they fought one another with fists. They knew the lethal odds that faced them on the Normandy beaches. Then Martin, Markovich, Loshiavo and Lockwood were in their landing craft. One soldier insisted that these boats were designed to induce “a sense of physical discomfort, seasickness and physical degradation” so that the men would “land in such an angry condition as to bring destruction, devastation and death upon any person or thing in sight or hearing.” About 2,500 Americans were killed in the D-Day effort to make the world safe for freedom. One of them was Sandy Martin, who lies buried in the American cemetery on the bluff that looks down on Omaha Beach

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/upshot/seventy-years-ago-next-month-came-fury-and-death-on-d-day.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0
http://ww2colorfarbe.blogspot.com/2014/12/us-rangers-aboard-their-landing-craft.html

US Army General Douglas MacArthur's Second Landing on Leyte

Image size: 1600 x 1232 pixel. 438 KB
Date: Saturday, 21 October 1944
Place: Dulag, Leyte, Philippines
Photographer: Carl Mydans

US Army General Douglas MacArthur restages his landing from an LVCP on Leyte, Philippine Islands, for the press on White Beach in the 1st Calvary Division sector. At left is Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, MacArthur's chief of staff, and directly behind MacArthur, in glasses, is Colonel Lloyd Lehrbas, the general's aide. LST-740 and LST-814 are behind him. He originally landed on October 20, 1944, under marginal enemy fire on Red Beach in the 24th Infantry Division sector. Both the Japanese and the Americans were shocked to see him wade ashore on A-Day, the first day of the invasion. The Japanese taunted him verbally and opened fire with a Nambu machine gun, but he was not hurt and reportedly did not duck. Philippine President in exile, Sergio Osmena, accompanied the first landing. The Higgins Boat (LCVP) ran aground, and the party had to walk to shore. MacArthur was upset that his carefully prepared uniform was wet, but the shot was iconic. This view, taken the next day for newsreel cameras, was made on a shallower beach, with less tide. 1st Calvary Division soldiers who saw the photo of the first landing questioned its authenticity, and the controversy over the staged landings began. The picture was not posed but it was actually taken three months later, at a different beach than that of the original landing side at Leyte. LIFE photographer Carl Mydans was on the landing craft with MacArthur, and he rushed ashore on the pontoons army engineers put out so that MacArthur would not get his feet wet. But then he saw MacArthur’s landing craft turn away parallel to the shore. Mydans ran along the sand until the craft headed inwards, and as he had expected: “I was standing in my dry shoes waiting.” His photograph showed MacArthur sloshing towards the camera in his open-necked uniform and signature dark glasses, accompanied by staff officers and helmeted troops.

Source:

http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/tag/douglas-macarthur/

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1113

US Marines Disembark from LVT-1 Amtrac at Guam Landing Training

Image size: 1600 x 1267 pixel. 377 KB
Date: Friday, 12 May 1944
Place: Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
Photographer: Unknown

US 3rd Marine Division leathernecks disembark on the beach from an LVT-1 of the 3rd Amphibious Tractor Battalion during training for the invasion of Guam on Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal during the week of May 12, 1944. The "alligator" was developed as a disaster rescue vehicle after a number hurricanes caused severe damage to Florida in the late 1930s. Developed and, in part, financed by its inventor, Donald Roebling, grandson of the Brooklyn Bridge builder, it came to the attention of the US Navy when it was featured in the October 4, 1937, issue of LIFE Magazine. After refinements paid out of his own pocket, and the refusal of the US Navy to purchase the available version, the US Marine Corps took over the project. A combat version was designed in 1940 and tested and accepted by the Marine Corps. This LVT-1 had welded steel instead of aluminum, a more powerful engine, and provisions for one or two .30 caliber Browning machine guns. The first of the production LVTs would roll off the Food Machinery Corporation's (FMC) assembly line in July 1941. LVT-1 Alligator Amtracs (Amphibious Tractors) were first used at Guadalcanal in August 1942 and made a combat landing under heavy fire during the invasion of Tarawa on November 21, 1943. Their last combat operation was the invasion of Cape Gloucester, New Guinea in December 1943. The 3rd Amphibious Tractor Battalion upgraded to the LVT-2, which had improved armor and could carry more cargo. The unit had 180 LVT-2 Amtrac when it landed the 3rd Marine Division on July 21, 1944 on the beaches of Asan Point, Guam. 

Source:

https://www.mcu.usmc.mil/historydivision/World%20War%20II/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=1130

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1083