American M10 tank destroyer of the 654th Tank Destroyer Battalion during the Normandy campaign of World War II

An American M10 tank destroyer grinds its way up a torn hillside in this 1944 photograph, its long gun barrel cutting a sharp line across the pale sky. Around the machine, infantry soldiers of the 654th Tank Destroyer Battalion trudge forward with rifles and packs, their heads low against the effort. The ground beneath them is a mess of churned mud and scraggly brush, and nothing about the moment feels arranged. This is simply war as it happened during the Normandy campaign, tired men and heavy metal moving through hostile country.

The photographer, Robert Capa, made his name by refusing to shoot from a safe distance. He famously said that if your pictures were not good enough, you were not close enough, and he backed up those words by wading ashore with the troops on D-Day to capture the terror of Omaha Beach. His images gave people back home an unfiltered view of the conflict, one built on grit and fear rather than parades and medals.

Part of what gives this picture its punch is how small the soldiers look next to the tank and the wide landscape swallowing them. Capa did not tidy anything or hold out for a flattering angle. He caught ordinary people carrying an enormous burden, and the result is a plain, sobering reminder of what these men actually faced.