I heard on a History channel DDay show that a major dropped about a dozen cans of films into the channel while boarding a ship. It contained most of the film taken by war cameramen that day. Has anyone heard of this or has any more information about it. If it is true it is a tragedy.
Combat Cameramen at Omaha Beach
Despite many Signals Corps Combat Cameramen going ashore with the first wave troops at Omaha Beach, Normandy, most of the moving footage was filmed by the Coastguard.
Once the beachhead was secured, the Signals Corps cameramen handed their footage to the Beachmasters for sending back to England. Unfortunately the bag holding most of this footage was dropped overboard when being loaded onto a ship; and lost forever.
Similar bad luck was to befall the creator of some of the most poignant images to come from Omaha Beach.
These were taken by the civilian photographer
Robert Capa.
Having landed ashore with the second wave, Capa shot 106 images of the carnage on the beach with two 35mm Contax II cameras.
However, a darkroom error resulted in the loss of 3 1/2 rolls of film, with the images that could be recovered having a distinctive blurred look.
Many photographers, myself included think that this look gives the Capa images a feel that a crisp image could never achieve.
Meanwhile, above the Normandy beaches Captain Dale E. Bikinis became the first man to photograph the invasion, using a specially constructed camera.
http://www.theworldatwar.info/uscombatcameramen.html
