Allies' best war photographer experiences Army's biggest battle.
Mid-December 1944 saw the
beginning of the six-week Battle of the Bulge on Europe's Western Front.
War photographer Robert Capa immersed himself with Allied troops. Here,
an American soldier points a gun at a German prisoner of war.- Robert Capa was widely considered to be the best photographer of World War II
- Capa spent a few days photographing the Battle of the Bulge in late December 1944
- Capa had a few close calls while photographing the battle
- View high-resolution photos Capa took during the Battle of the Bulge
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concurred, calling it "undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war."
So it was entirely appropriate the man widely considered the world's best war photographer, Robert Capa, was embedded with U.S. troops during a portion of the battle.
Capa's photos in the
accompanying gallery were taken in just a short time at the end of
December 1944, according to Cynthia Young, curator of the International Center for Photography's Capa Archive.
Robert Capa
Young said while Capa drew acclaim for his action photos, those he took at the Battle of the Bulge are of a different nature.
"The images of dead
soldiers, a farmer burying a dead horse in the snow and German prisoners
corralled with their hands raised attest to the bleakness of this
deadly campaign," Young said.
Capa, who Young describes
as "decidedly anti-fascist," was not an impartial observer of the war,
but rather an official Allied photographer.
"He photographed for the
American and English press to inform readers of the war in the hope that
his photographs would help garner Allied support," Young said.
You'll see several photos
of German prisoners in the accompanying gallery. Young said that Capa
would only photograph German soldiers if they were prisoners.
Despite Capa's Allied
status, he cast anything but a military appearance, according to Kenneth
Koyen, a U.S. Army public relations officer who assisted Capa during
the Battle of the Bulge.
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Writing in the History of Photography (reprinted online on evesmag.com),
Koyen relates how that appearance almost cost Capa his freedom when
Koyen escorted Capa into a U.S. Army intelligence headquarters where an
intelligence officer, Lt. Col. Harry Brown, was working on a
wall-mounted map of battle positions.
"'Arrest that man! Get
him out of here!'" Brown shouted as he tried to conceal the map from
Capa, who was wearing a pilfered German fur coat, according to Koyen's
account.
Koyen was able to
convince the colonel of Capa's allegiance, but the photographer's
appearance almost cost him again later in the battle, when U.S. soldiers
began shooting at Capa, Koyen wrote.
Koyen stepped in and
waved the GIs off, he wrote. And then: "Capa and I exchanged a long
glance. Without a word, he took off the fur coat and stowed it in the
(jeep)."
Those GIs were among the
1 million soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. More than
100,000 Germans and 67,000 Americans were casualties, according to the National WW II Museum.
The battle was
considered finished on January 28, 1945, when German forces were pushed
back to positions they occupied when their offensive began six weeks
earlier.
Learn more about Capa at the International Center for Photography's Capa at 100 page, which includes the only known recording of Capa's voice, a radio interview from 1947.
