Into the Jaws of Death
Taxis to Hell – and Back – Into the Jaws of Death is a photograph taken on June 6, 1944, by
The photograph
The photograph was taken by Chief Photographer's Mate Robert Sargent during the troop landing phase of
The photograph was taken at 7:40 AM local time. It depicts the soldiers departing the Higgins boat and wading through waist-deep water towards the "Easy Red" sector of Omaha Beach.[3]
The image was one of the most widely reproduced photographs of the D-Day landings. The original photograph is stored by the United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.[3]
Background
Neptune was the largest combat operation ever performed by the United States Coast Guard.[3]
The Higgins boat depicted in the photograph had departed from the attack transport USS Samuel Chase about 10 miles (8.7 nmi; 16 km) from the coast of Normandy at around 5:30 AM. Waves continuously broke over the boat's square bow, and the soldiers inside were drenched in cold ocean water.[3]
In all, Samuel Chase lost six landing craft on D-Day; four foundered near the beach, one was "impaled" by a beach obstacle, and another was sunk by enemy gunfire.[3]
Origin of the phrase
The phrase "into the jaws of Death" in the photograph's title comes from a refrain in "
In popular culture
The image was evoked in the 1998 Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan,[5][6] and appears on the cover of Stanley Lombardo's 1997 English translation of the Iliad as a symbol of the universality of war.[7]
See also
- List of photographs considered the most important
- The Magnificent Eleven, D-Day photographs by Robert Capa
References
- History. A&E Networks. Archived from the originalon January 27, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
- ^ Price, Scott T. "U.S. Coast Guard at Normandy". U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Young, Stephanie. "Into the jaws of death: U.S. Coast Guard-manned landing craft at Normandy". United States Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ "The Charge Of The Light Brigade". Alfred, Lord Tennyson. nationalcenter.org. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
- ^ Shields, Mark (August 3, 1998). "'Ryan' recalls a war that was 'good' because it was democratic". The Free Lance–Star. Creators Syndicate.
- ISBN 9781137360724.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Daniel (July 20, 1997). "Yo, Achilles". The New York Times.
External links
- Media related to Into the Jaws of Death at Wikimedia Commons