TARGET PRACTICE WITH GENERALS EISENHOWER AND BRADLEY - An original 1944 Second World War press photograph of Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill with Generals Eisenhower and Bradley trying out weapons intended for use by Allied troops in the reconquest of Europe.
London: Copyright Camera Press Ltd., 1944. Photograph. This intriguing wartime image, a fascinating convocation of British and American wartime leadership, testifies to the blunt wartime concerns of the Allies in the run up to the invasion of Normandy, and to the keenly informed interest that Britain’s civilian leader, a former soldier with battlefield experience on three continents, took in the machinery of war. The composition of the image is compelling, the three and four-star American generals bracketing the be-suited British Prime Minister, all three with rifles raised and sighted downrange.
The gelatin silver print is on heavy glossy photo paper and measures 6.5 x 4.75 inches. Condition is very good. The image remains clear and distinct, though with a few superficial blemishes and minor cupping and crinkling of the photo paper. The verso of the photo is rich in provenance, featuring two ink stamps – of the original copyright holder as well as the newspaper in whose archives the photo resided – as well as an original typed caption from the photo’s use in 1959, on the occasion of Churchill’s 85th birthday.
The copyright stamp is that of “CAMERA PRESS LTD.” of London. The “RECEIVED” stamp is that of “The Daily Telegraph PICTURE LIBRARY” with a hand-inked designation number. The typed caption is headed “Sir Winston is 85” above the title “TARGET PRACTICE WITH EISENHOWER AND BRADLEY”. The full caption reads “Sir Winston Churchill will celebrate his 85th birthday on the 30th of November, 1959. He is seen in this picture with General Eisenhower, left, and General Bradley, right, trying out weapons intended for use by Allied troops in the invasion of Europe, 1944. CAMERA PRESS (IWM) London 5657-15”. The photograph is protected with a clear, rigid, removable sleeve.
Churchill was a soldier before he was a politician and maintained a lifelong informed fascination with the minutiae and machinery of combat. The man who began his career as a cavalry officer and participated in the ‘last great cavalry charge in British history’ would later help design the tank, pilot aircraft, direct use of some of the earliest computers (for WWII code breaking), and ultimately preside as Prime Minister over the first British nuclear weapons test. During the Second World War he showed keen interest in – and critical support for – the struggle for technological mastery that would prove as critical to winning the war as men, material, and logistics.
At the time this image was captured, then-four star General Eisenhower (1890-1969) was awaiting his greatest challenge of the war – acting as Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force during the invasion of Normandy and subsequent push to reclaim continental Europe from the Nazis. Eisenhower would ascend to five star General before, in the early 1950s, becoming Churchill’s civilian counterpart, serving as President of the United States during fifteen months of Churchill’s second and final premiership.
Then three-star Lieutenant General Omar Bradley (1893-1981) would command the U.S. First Army, the American ground force that landed at Omaha and Utah beaches on D-Day. Bradley would become the last American officer to hold five-star rank and the first to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
This press photo once belonged to a newspaper’s working archive. During the first half of the twentieth century, photojournalism grew as a practice, fundamentally changing the way the public interacted with current events. Newspapers assembled expansive archives, including physical copies of all photographs published or deemed useful for potential future use, their versos typically marked with ink stamps and notes providing provenance and captions. Photo departments would often take brush, paint, pencil, and marker to the surface of photographs themselves to edit them before publication. Today these photographs exist as repositories of historical memory, technological artifacts, and often striking pieces of vernacular art. Item #005204
Price: $350.00