| Original caption: Quiet Follows the Fury on the Beaches — With the bitter Nazi defenders forced back into the interior, reinforcements flow steadily through the surf and up the beaches of France. Barricades of wreckage from D-Day have been removed. The dead are gone. Order has replaced the chaos of the 1st days of terrific fighting. While the original caption indicated a later date, this is likely taken later in the day of June 6, 1944, on Utah Beach, as the United States Army 4th Infantry Division landed reinforcements. 8 barrage balloons have already been floated to discourage Nazi German air attacks. Note the 8-wheel-drive amphibious 2-and-½-ton DUKW trucks. A sailor leans out of a Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel (LCVP) that has life belts, ropes, and other gear visible as it rests grounded some distance from the beach. In the left background Landing Craft Tank (LCT)-779 is seen. LCT-779 was laid down on December 15, 1943, at Mount Vernon Bridge Company at their shipyard in Ironton, Ohio as a Mark 6 Class LCT design. She was launched into the Ohio River on January 25, 1944, delivered to the United States Navy on January 27, and sailed down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Assigned to LCT Flotilla 17, Group 50 for the Normandy Campaign, LCT-779 was loaded onto a transport for crossing the Atlantic. On June 6, LCT-779 landed 5 Dodge WC ¾ ton Command and Reconnaissance vehicles, 1 ¼ ton Willys MB jeep and 1 General Motors 2½ ton CCKW truck and 38 men from the VII Corps Headquarters Company; 3 CCKW trucks from the 3891st Quartermaster Truck Company and 6 men; 1 Willys MB jeep and 1 man from the 506th Quartermaster Car Company; and 3 Willys MB jeeps with 2 drivers and liaison officers from the 4th Infantry Division, 82nd Airborne Division, and 101st Airborne Division. On June 7, LCT-779 came alongside USS Bannock (ATF-81) an ocean-going tug performing repairs off Utah Beach, but due to “mechanical defect” Bannock couldn’t fix LCT-779. On June 8, she transferred casualties to LST-283. As of June 15, LCT-779 was still on Utah Beach. LCT-779 was assigned to the Rhine River patrol in early 1945. Out of service in 1946, she was struck from the United States Naval register and then transferred to the Bundesmarine (“West German Federal Navy”) as LCU-1. LCT-779 earned 1 battle star for her World War II service. She was decommissioned in 1976 and scrapped. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0419.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.41 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 3600 x 2963 |
| Photographer | Peter J. Carroll |
| Photographer Title | United States Coast Guard |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 6, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Utah Beach |
| State or Province | Normandy |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | 26-G-2415 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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