THE PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD is priceless. As the Normandy invasion grows more distant in the mirror of history, the pictures remain with us, almost an uncompromising keepsake to that extraordinary, remarkable event. The pictures illustrate what we read in the original documents or the veterans’ memoirs, or the words we hear as we listen to their personal stories. The photos provide us with definition and context. They humanize what is now a legendary event. Each photograph conveys only a single moment in time, a second of experience, a glimpse into the reality of that instant. They cannot and do not tell us all, but they do tell us something honest. The photographs show us the uniforms, the weapons, the equipment, the hairstyles, the food, the setting, even the time of day on that momentous June 6, 1944. More interesting, the best of them convey the mood and the emotions of the participants. They show the fear, the anticipation, the confusion, and, in some instances, the camaraderie of a particular moment.
The photographs of the Normandy invasion—many of them familiar to most anyone who has studied D-Day—have created unforgettable images in our minds and, for many of us, they have inspired myriad questions. Where was this photo taken? Who are the soldiers in the image? What was their mission at the time? What happened to them? Did they notice the photographer taking their picture? How did they feel about that? Martin K. A. Morgan has spent years gathering and studying the images. He has walked the hallowed invasion beaches countless times. He has dug deeply into archives in multiple countries, poring over image after image. Over the years, he has befriended large numbers of veterans, many of whom have been kind enough to trust him with their own pictures. Suffice it to say his expertise on the photographic record of the Normandy invasion is formidable and impressive. Thus, Martin’s captions provide quite a few answers to our age-old questions. As you leaf through this handsome book, you will undoubtedly see numerous familiar photographs and you might be tempted to think you know the story behind them and their proper context. With all due respect, you would most likely be wrong in that assumption. Martin has taken those familiar images and made them new again because of his truly remarkable level of knowledge and insight. He has also succeeded in presenting many new or previously little-known photographs among the pages that follow. So, sit back and enjoy a fresh look at one of history’s most significant events, as seen through the keen eyes of the talented photographers of yesteryear and a fine historian of our own time.
John C. McManus
St. Louis, MO
Author of The Americans at D-Day and The Dead and Those about to Die: D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Big Red One at Omaha Beach