This image, Into the Jaws of Death, is one of the most famous of the Second World War. It was taken by US Coast Guard photographer Robert F. Sargent early in the morning of 6 June 1944, as Allied soldiers at Omaha Beach began their attack on Nazi-occupied Europe.
Behind the Image
BEHIND THE IMAGE: The Paris Exodus
This campaign of terror provoked an exodus – and the Biblical term is appropriate. The French government fled, soon followed by many of the city’s inhabitants.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: B-52 storage area, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona
The boneyard here at Davis-Monthan was established in 1946 to store WWII bombers and transports.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Kristallnacht, by Charlotte Salomon, from Life? Or Theatre? 1940-1942
With its warm tones and bustling figures, this month’s image could – at first glance – appear almost to represent a scene of innocent activity. The truth, however, could not be more different.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: The Unknown Warrior, 1920
On 11 November 1920, the largest funeral ever held in London took place – and yet the deceased was a man unknown to the hundreds of thousands of mourners who turned out in his honour. Described as the greatest outpouring of grief the country had ever known, the event was the burial of the Unknown […]
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Number of people mobilised in World War II
The Second World War was the deadliest conflict in human history – involving 30 belligerent nations, it was fought from the far north of Europe to the South Pacific, and mobilised 1 in 9 of the global population. Estimates of the total number of soldiers and civilians killed range from 56 million to 85 million.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Spectators at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, 28 June 1919
Perched on sofas and peering in from every angle, these Allied officers were obviously desperate to catch a glimpse of the momentous events unfolding next door. The Great War was finally coming to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in the dazzling surroundings of the Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: The Prague Spring, 1968
Fifty years ago, during the so-called ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968, the citizens of Czechoslovakia enjoyed a few brief, tantalising months of liberation from some of the worst effects of Soviet domination.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: the struck Japanese fleet carrier Amagi, 24 July 1945
Here lies the toppled Japanese aircraft carrier Amagi . Photographed towards the very end of the Second World War, it is a metaphor for the vanquished hopes of Japanese military ambition.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: U-Boat on Hastings beach, April 1919
U-boat 118 had been launched in February 1918, and in the last couple of months of the war dispatched two British ships – the Wellington, a steamer, and the Arca, a tanker.
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