A Wwii Combat Photographer's Story: The First Use of Color

A

WWII

COMBAT

PHOTOGRAPHER’S

STORY: The First Use of Color

By Frank S. Errigo As told to Paula M. Errigo

©

Copyright 2015 Paula Errigo.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-6778-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-6779-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015919870

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

My Resume of Experiences

The War Beckons

Somewhere on the East Coast, 1943

Embarkation

Arriving at the Beginning of Destiny

Recollections of Anzio Beach in Italy, 1943

Date with Destiny

Epilogue

A WWII Combat Photographer’s Story:

The First Use of Color

By Frank S. Errigo

As told to Paula M Errigo

Acknowledgements

To my wife Ann, and my son Chip

And the rest of my family Judy, Katie,

Francesca, Ryan, Ava and Emme

for their ongoing love and support

Carrie Steinman Noonan for her generous support

Dick Whitson for his concepts and concern

Michael Winpenny and Cornerstone Graphics for his wonderful scans

Mark and Maureen Schultz for their early work in bringing forth the story

All the fine soldiers then and now with which I had the privilege to serve

Never forget………

Introduction

Frank Errigo’s career as a photojournalist and commercial set photographer spanned six decades from 1941 to 2000. Now retired, he is widely recognized as one of the two most important and prolific color photographers of the Second World War.

Born in 1920 to immigrant Italians in the mining town of Curwensville, Pennsylvania, Errigo was the youngest in a family of nine children. As a schoolboy he was thunderstruck by photographs of the nearby 1889 Johnstown Flood. The glass negative images of the devastation and wreckage helped turn this disaster into the biggest news story in America since the assassination of President Lincoln. From the age of thirteen, young Frank dedicated himself to photojournalism, working two jobs through the midst of the Great Depression to earn money to buy his first camera. In 1936 he purchased a used 35mm Leica camera, along with developing supplies and a book that taught him the basics of his craft. By age 18 he had become a precise, highly skilled amateur with a remarkable eye for light and composition.

As Adolph Hitler moved across Europe in 1939, young Americans began to enlist in the armed services in great numbers. Just past his twentieth birthday, Errigo presented himself at a recruitment center in Harrisburg, PA and told them of his desire to shoot photographs for the army. He was enrolled with 22 professional photographers in the Photo School at the Army War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. in September 1940.

There he was introduced to medium (4x5) and large (8x10) format cameras, as well as to a young photographer named Ardean Miller III, who had worked for Kodak before the war. Miller was full of praise for Kodak’s spectacular new dye transfer color film, Kodachrome, which he personally had introduced to the public at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Miller successfully convinced the Army Signal Corps to purchase all the medium and large format