| Original caption: “Members of an American landing party lend helping hands to others whose landing craft was sunk by enemy action off the coast of France. These survivors reached Utah Beach, near Cherbourg, by using a life raft.” United States Army Engineers of the 348th Combat Battalion, 5th Engineers Special Brigade, assist soldiers whose Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel (LCVP) foundered in heavy surf. From right to left: 1st Lieutenant Morris W. Selfe (December 10, 1921 – August 13, 2014); Unknown; Nicholas Russin (December 18, 1912 – July 21, 1997); Unknown. In the group of men pulling the rubber boat to shore is 2nd Lieutenant George W. Carter, Jr. (August 30, 1921 – April 20, 2012). Photograph by Private 1st Class Louis Weintraub (1922 – September 13, 1991) of the 162nd Signal Photographic Company. Private 1st Class Walter Rosenblum (Oct 1, 1919 – January 23, 2006) had landed on June 6, 1944, with Weintraub and Technical Sergeant Val Carlton Pope (July 28, 1919 – August 25, 1944) and 3 others. Scheduled to land at H + 230 minutes, the team, known as Detachment P, was attached to the 5th Engineers Special Brigade. Aboard USS Henrico (APA-45), they watched the 1st wave depart. Rosenblum exposed a few low light shots by using a slow shutter speed as the wounded began to be brought back to the ship. The team next photographed men about to enter combat for the 1st time as the soldiers and officers of the 348th Engineer Combat Battalion descended rope ladders into the waiting Landing Craft Tank (LCT). Joining these men, the 5 cameramen (1 officer and 4 enlisted men) began their run into the beach. unable to pinpoint the exact time of their landing, somewhere between the early morning and early afternoon, either on Omaha Beach “Fox Green” or “Easy Red.” They arrived as the “crack” German 352nd Division defended Omaha; Rosenblum recalled seeing the bodies of dead American soldiers drift past his Landing Craft, Tank (LCT) as he approached the beach. The water was red with blood. Detachment P took many photographs and entrusted the negatives to a United States Navy sailor headed back to the transport; their photographs and still frames were never seen again. 1st Lieutenant Morris Selfe, 348th Combat Battalion, 5th Engineers Special Brigade, of Brooklyn rode an LCVP onto Omaha Beach on June 6. A German 20 mm (0.78 inch) shell knocked out the steering. It missed Selfe by 18 inches (45 centimeters). On the beach, he raised flags to guide in more LCVPs. The Germans shot them out of his hands. Selfe worked to demolish enemy fortifications, helped pick up anti-personnel mines and cut gaps in barbed wire. Starting on June 6, United States Army 1st Lieutenant Walter Sidlowski, 348th Combat Battalion, 5th Engineers Special Brigade, supporting the 1st Infantry Division, continued to remove the wooden and steel obstacles on the beach. Most had mines attached, and they were entwined with barbed wire. Sidlowski and his men removed the mines and the wire and stacked the obstacles away from the exits off the beach. They worked all day June 6, only stopping to eat cold rations. The next day, ignorant of the loss of their previous hard work, Detachment P was somewhat comforted by the reduced level of incoming German fire. American soldiers began to remove helmets, less wary of artillery and snipers. Earlier on June 7, Private 1st Class Nicholas Russin, 5th Engineer Special Brigade, 4142nd Quartermaster Service Company, climbed down the rope ladders to board an LCVP to head to the beach. At age 32, he was older than most of the other soldiers in the unit. Enlisted on April 1, 1943, Russin transferred to the Quartermasters after punching an officer in his artillery unit. Russin recalled, “You knew this was it. You could feel the fear and intensity in the air. Men were silent. Some were praying. Some were panicking. It seemed like forever and we’re not even on the LCVP yet.” His mind may have eased a bit when he ran into a familiar face: Navy 2nd Class Signalman John Furka (March 21, 1923 – February 8, 2015). Both were from Lydora, Pennsylvania. In the same LCVP was 2nd Lieutenant George W. Carter, Jr. (August 30, 1921 – April 20, 2012). “We crossed the channel in ships that hauled tanks and trucks and stuff,” Carter recalled. “We crawled down cargo nets off the side of them into landing barges. And there was lots of us, and we just circled and circled, waiting until the rest of them got loaded. We was all seasick, throwing up, couldn’t help that.” On the morning of June 7, the sight of pure carnage was staggering. Debris, equipment, rubber rafts, corpses and body parts were strewn everywhere and continued to wash ashore. Selfe, Sidlowski and their 348th Combat Battalion, 5th Engineer Special Brigade team resumed their efforts to remove mines and obstacles in the surf, on the beach and up to the town of Colleville-Sur-Mer (now the site of the Normandy American Cemetery). German snipers and artillery fire remained a constant threat. Landing crafts continued to drop their ramps and deliver fresh troops, tanks, jeeps and supplies. About a dozen or more were inbound when Sidlowski noticed 1 stranded on a sandbar. It was 1 of 3 LCVPs about 75 to 200 yards away from shore, struggling in the choppy waters. At least 1 began to list and then sink. Men began swimming for their lives among the floating bodies and debris. The weight of their packs and equipment were too much for some to make it. Russin recalled, “I couldn’t believe it. I was going straight to the bottom. With about a hundred pounds of equipment on. I could see other guys going down,” said Russin, who stood about 5 foot 8 inches (1.72 meters). “I pushed off the bottom and came up. I was trying to get rid of the equipment weighing me down. As I popped up, I threw my helmet off, gasping for air. I took in sea water, went down again. I could see other men struggling. “The sailor that was driving the barge lowered the ramp and told us to go,” Carter said. “And all we could do was go then. We jumped off and the water wasn’t very deep.” Carter’s buddy, Private 1st Class Harold C. Brumm (May 1, 1923 – September 11, 1995) of Newark, New York, couldn’t swim and yelled for help. Carter recalled that he didn’t think Brumm had inflated the buoyant life belt all of the soldiers were wearing when they disembarked. Sidlowski and others saw what was happening. He and a group of others decided to act. “We swam out and took a few as we could each time and brought them back to shore. Somebody else got a long rope, which we swam out with, tied it on to the landing craft, had them hold onto the rope, and walk themselves in,” Sidlowski said. “We took as many as we could to swim in.” Selfe swam out to help rescue 24 soldiers stranded in a landing craft about 200 yards offshore. Then, he moved on to a 2nd LCVP and fastened a lifeline to the beach. A strong current forced him to swim in a direction to the side of the crafts, just so he could let the current pull him sideways to reach a 3rd stranded craft. Weintraub, Rosenblum, and Pope were drawn to the commotion developing in the waves; the Engineers were trying to rescue the men in the sinking LCVP. They came across the scene of a rescue led by Lieutenants Walter Sidlowski and Morris Selfe. Pope took motion picture footage while Rosenblum and Weintraub shot stills. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2167.jpg |
| Image Size | 522.11 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2891 x 2329 |
| Photographer | Louis Weintraub |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 7, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Utah Beach |
| State or Province | Normandy |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-111-SC-190366 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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