using two contaxes.he took 106 pictures of the bloody battle on the beach before rushing back through the surf to clamber on to a landing craft returning to the invasion fleet offshore.
a week later he learned that most of his pictures had been destroyed by a darkroom assistant in landon who became so excited that he tried to hasten the drying process by turning up the heat. and melted the images off the negatives.
only eight frames could be savaged.(in later years there were persistent rumours that the darkroom assistant was Larry Burrows.subsequently a famous life photographer who was killed in Vietnam.but Ed Thompson says this is nonsense.)
Life first told Capa that the pictures were spoiled becase sea weater had leaked into his cameras so when he discovered what had really happened he was doubly furious.but at same time he told Life editors he would never work for them again if they fired the assistant who was responsible.
When the magazine finally ran the redeemable photographs it attemped to explain their quality by claiming that Capa had not focused properly in the heat of battle. further enraging him.(when he wrote a colourful.not to say fanciful.autobiography afterr the war he called it"Slightly Out Of Focus"as a bitter jibe at the Life editors.)