Robert F Sargent

Robert F. Sargent was an American coast guard photographer who captured one of the defining images of the Second World War. Born in 1923, he was serving as a photographer's mate when Allied forces landed in Normandy on D-Day in June 1944. From a landing craft he took a photograph looking out over the ramp as soldiers waded into the water toward the beach under fire.

The image, often called Into the Jaws of Death, shows the men from behind as they head into danger, and it became one of the most powerful pictures of the invasion. It captures both the scale and the peril of that day. Sargent's photograph endures as a lasting record of courage and sacrifice on the beaches of Normandy.