| Original caption: “Moving into Palermo after the Sicilian capital fell to their fighting men, these Yanks survey the damage that long weeks of pounding from the air did to the city. Whole rows of buildings in the harbor area are completely demolished, while the streets are packed with the rubbish of war.” A United States Army 1st Infantry Division M3 half-track passes the Palazzo Geraci on via Vittorio Emanuele during the liberation of Palermo. During World War II the Italian city of Palermo, the regional capital and largest city of Sicily, was heavily bombed by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. As the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) approached, operational intensity increased. United States Army Air Force Consolidated B-24 Liberators and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses could bring heavier bomb loads than the Royal Air Force medium bombers. Raids occurred frequently from January – July 1943, with the heaviest raid on May 9; 211 bombers of the 12th Air Force dropped 315 tons of bombs, targeting the harbor and railroad yards, causing 373 civilian deaths. 1st Lieutenant David W. Bishop (May 8, 1917 – December 26, 1979) invited Robert Capa (October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954) to fly with the 346th Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group, flying out of Saint-Donat, Algeria. Capp flew on a bombing mission to Palermo with Lieutenant Jay F. Shelley (May 16, 1916 – June 6, 2004) in Boeing B-17F-5-BO Flying Fortress 41-24407 “The Goon.” Capa choose to fly with Shelley because he “won big in the poker game the night before the mission, and I figured he would want to protect his winnings carefully.” Shelley, a graduate of Brigham Young University, was enjoined from gambling by Mormon tenets. In his autobiography, which is somewhat given to self-aggrandizement, Capa wrote: “We got a new target: Palermo. The ack-ack was much worse here than it had been before, and 2 squadrons of German fighters were up in the air waiting for us. They were like little silver dots above us in the sky, then they shook their shiny wings and dived and grew into ugly spitting monsters. Their bullets tore holes in our wings with the precision of a sewing machine, and “The Goon” was nearly down. Lieutenant Jay straightened the plane almost on the sea. 3 of our motors were still going strong, and we made home without much trouble. Most of the planes were in ahead of us. We waited for the others on the landing strip until late after darkness, and that night we did not play. 1 of our [planes] was missing.” The Allies landed in Sicily on July 10, 1943. Capa hoped to jump with the United States Army 82nd Airborne Infantry Division; but he had not completed the requisite 5 training missions, so he couldn’t accompany them. Instead, ignoring his employer Collier’s instructions to return to New York since his contract was finished, he disobeyed regulations and joined the United States 1st Infantry Division. He knew many of the officers from North Africa. Palermo was liberated on July 22. Capa was with the 1st Infantry Division as they entered the city. Unemployed, he took photographs and asked reporter Ernie Pyle (August 3, 1900 – April 18, 1945) to send them to LIFE Magazine in the hopes they would hire him. Enthralled by Capa’s photography, he had a contract almost immediately. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2076.jpg |
| Image Size | 239.66 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1212 x 1295 |
| Photographer | Robert Capa |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 13, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Palermo |
| State or Province | Sicily |
| Country | Italy |
| Archive | International Center of Photography |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database