Vessel-mounted Eyemo cameras on D-Day

I previously posted about the fixed cameras that recorded Canadian troops landing from LCAs at Juno Beach. Since then, I've found a few more things and reconsidered some prior information.

At the 9:43 mark here https://catalog.archives.gov/id/76285 is some VERY BRIEF footage taken by a fixed camera on the USCG LCI(L)-493 at Omaha Beach. The camera had apparently malfunctioned, exposing only 30' of its 100' film roll. The first segment shows a man walking down the vessel's port ramp. Two DD tanks can be seen ahead at the surf line. After this is another brief scene shot in brighter light. From the markings on the soldiers' helmets, I suspect these might be men of the US 2nd Infantry Division, perhaps taken on June 7th. Speculation: maybe the camera jammed after the first shot and it later briefly started running again.

At the 9:55 mark of the same NARA reel, a shot of OSS camera slate 22 appears. This segment was shot by the fixed camera mounted on USCG LCI(L)-88. USCG Photographers' Mate Gilbert DeStefano was on the vessel. He shot handheld footage and may also have turned on the fixed camera. It is interesting to view his handheld film beside the fixed camera footage.

At the 2:04 mark here https://catalog.archives.gov/id/77088 is footage from the fixed camera mounted on LCI(L)-94 at Omaha Beach. I had previously misidentified this as being from LCI(L)-493. Historian Chuck Herrick had viewed these clips and noticed the varied shapes of the depression rails behind the forward 20mm mounts. These are a bit like LCI "fingerprints" that help distinguish vessels from each other. Chuck had written about Robert Capa's departure from the beach aboard LCI(L)-94. We were both surprised that this footage was from the same craft.

I put together a video about these cameras here.

A June 16, 1944 London OSS document indicated "fifty" cameras had been installed (this was incorrect - there were only 35) and that footage from "approximately eight" cameras had been received in London. At a minimum, this shows that of the 144 RAF Bomb-Spotters that were obtained for the project, the actual footage that was obtained was small. However, the OSS believed the quality of the footage was very good. This would have been especially true for the Juno Beach rolls.

Still missing is film that was recovered from the Canadian LCIs 115, 118, and 276. I have not been able to find out more about these rolls. It could be the film was somehow unusable and was discarded without further mention, but that is just a guess.

Also, there is evidence the two fixed cameras on British LCT-2289 were turned on The D-Day Story Collection, but I've found no record of what became of its film rolls.

 

Thomas's previous 2026 thread on this topic was: The Story of the Juno Beach D-Day Footage

He has another four posts on the theme.

 

Tom, you did a great job tracking down all these details and putting the pieces together. A very fine job!

 

Yes, I agree, well done Tom and Chuck ...

Regards ...

 

Thank you, Chuck. And thanks for your insight on the 20mm mount rails!

 

Hello Thomas,

This is probably old news for you, but may be of general interest to others. The Canadian perspective on the fixed, vessel-mounted D-Day cine cameras:

D-Day Discoveries: On The Beach ...

Regards ...

 

Cee,
Thank you!
This find is not old news to me, and it is a great addition to the body of knowledge about the camera project. I just viewed this YouTube video for the first time. I'll post some documents and then share some thoughts.
Here is a portion of a spreadsheet I created about the cameras based on the London OSS documents:


The names in the "Installed by" column are OSS personnel (Moran, Grand, Marquard, Cooper). Note the absence of detail about the installation of cameras on the Brigadier's LCAs. The LCAs highlighted in brown are those (based on info from Temujin) that were not lost on D-Day.

 

Here is a document related to the provision of 14 cameras for Force J. (The OSS Field Photo man referred to as "Petty Officer Markwood" was actually Carl "Brick" Marquard, who had worked for Technicolor before the war.) I adjusted the brightness and contrast to improve readability.


The CanadianFilm video includes discussion of a letter by Lt. Col Richard Malone regarding 15 fixed cameras provided by SHAEF. Setting aside the 1 camera discrepancy, Lt. Col. Malone seems to be discussing the same cameras. Here is the OSS record of cameras installed on Canadian and British vessels.

 

Yo,

Looks like the Canadians snagged a roll or two (?) of fixed footage ...

Here's an account of how the Grant footage got back so early. No mention of footage other than Grant's being present.

D-Day Discoveries 75 Years After

Regards ...

 

I think it is almost a sure thing that the Canadians had copies of the fixed camera footage from their LCIs and the three LCAs that survived the landing and was returned to London. The questions that follow are:
Was the film stored at Pendleton and was it destroyed in the 1967 fire?
Since the original was considered SHAEF property, were copies saved in a US or UK archive?

I've searched for more Canadian film on the US National Archives catalogue website without success. However, the WW2 footage that came from the Army Pictorial Service was sometimes stored on rolls of unrelated film and not properly catalogued. I found the "new" Omaha Beach footage tacked onto rolls like this. So, it is possible there are a few overlooked fixed camera rolls out there somewhere. But where is it?

 

Not sure how that whole vast copy/distribute/newsreel system worked. I can't imagine them sending the originals to North America off the bat, especially the fix-mounted footage.

If there were copies at Beaconsfield they wouldn't have survived the 1967 fire. Sometimes lost Canadian cuts are still found in British Pathe compilations.

Regards ...

 

Sorry double post - stupidly slow at the moment.

 

Originals would not have left Britain immediately, but getting usable footage out to the public was a priority. Film had to first be screened for censorship purposes.

 

Hey,

Whew - quite the process just getting material through the censorship inspection.

Attached is an old article you may already have from a time when the Canadians first began to question the fixed-camera footage. They just didn't know the wider story.

It does seem, though, that someone with the CFPU picked up a few fixed cameras/footage from craft on D-Day.

Regards ...

 

Thank you, Cee. I had not seen this.

 

Bob Lansdale

There are a couple of interviews of the article writer available here:

https://www.youtube.com/@canadianfilm/videos

Low volume for some reason. Interesting, but not sure if it reveals much new. Of course this is just the Canadian side of the story.

Regards ...