80 MAY/JUNE 2019
GOING ASHORE
War photographer Robert Capa accompanied
the first wave of troops as they faced enemy fire
(above). Guiding them were men like Ensign Joseph
Vaghi, a beachmaster at Omaha Beach, who had a
top secret map (right) to show where troops and
equipment would deploy along the coast.
Rundstedt disagreed, and Hitler decided to
hold most German armored forces in reserve
under his own control until the invasion took
place. Only one panzer division guarded the
Normandy coast beforehand. An elaborate
Allied deception campaign called Operation
Bodyguard—which included simulating phan-
tom divisions and feeding false reports to Berlin
from German agents under British control—led
Hitler to view landings at Normandy as a di-
version, which would be followed by a massive
Allied thrust across the Strait of Dover.
Dawning of D-Day
The invasion of Normandy was preceded by
daring coastal and aerial reconnaissance that
yielded detailed charts of the five landing zones:
Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and Omaha beaches.
Omaha Beach, the largest of the of the D-Day
attack zones, was subdivided into areas which
were code-named Charlie, Dog (divided into
Green, White, and Red sections), Easy (divided
into Green and Red sections), and Fox (divided
into Green and Red sections).
Foul weather forced Eisenhower to postpone
Overlord until June 6. Two more weeks would
pass before the moon and tides were again favor-
able for paratroopers landing inland before dawn
and soldiers landing on the beaches at daybreak. COLLECTION OF JOE VAGHI
©ROBERT CAPA. ©INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY/MAGNUM PHOTOS/CONTACTO