Still Pictures

Home > Research Our Records > Photographs and Graphic Works at the National Archives > Highlights from our Still Picture Branch Holdings at the National Archives at College Park > Into the Jaws of Death, June 6, 1944

Into the Jaws of Death, June 6, 1944

This photograph is one of the most well-known and evocative of the photographs taken on D-Day during the Normandy landings. It shows the soldiers of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division as they landed on Omaha Beach on the morning of the initial invasion wave. The image captures the first moments after the soldiers left the landing craft, as they waded through heavy surf, dodged deadly artillery and machine gun fire, and encountered mines and other obstacles as they attempted to move ashore to capture and take position on the beach. The photograph is credited to Robert F. Sargent, Chief Photographer's Mate (CPhoM), United States Coast Guard. According to the National Coast Guard Museum, CPhoM Sargent, a veteran of the earlier invasions of Sicily and Salerno, took the image from his landing craft at sector “Easy Red” of Omaha Beach around 7:40 a.m. local time.

refer to caption
Enlarge

The original caption reads: "Down the ramp of a Coast Guard landing barge Yankee soldiers storm toward the beach sweeping fire of Nazi defenders in the D-Day invasion of the French Coast. Troops ahead may be seen lying flat under the deadly machinegun resistance of the Germans. Soon the Nazis were driven back under the overwhelming invasion forces thrown in from Coast Guard and Navy amphibious craft." National Archives Identifier: 205578425/ Local Identifier: 26-G-2343.  View in National Archives Catalog

View and download “Into the Jaws of Death” in the National Archives Catalog. This image is part of the File Unit: Europe - Normandy Invasion, from Record Group 26, Records of the U.S. Coast Guard, Series: Photographs of Activities, Facilities, and Personalities. Nearly 7,000 images from this series are available to view and download in the National Archives Catalog. 

You can explore more World War II records held by the Still Picture Branch through the National Archives Catalog, through the Special Media Records Division blog: The Unwritten Record, on History Hub, or in person at our research room in College Park, MD. 

Top