The morning after greater than 130,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, US Army Signal Corps photographer Pfc. Walter Rosenblum captured one of the iconic images of the invasion — a black-and-white photograph of 2nd Lt. Walter Sidlowski recovering from a harrowing rescue effort to avoid wasting a gaggle of soldiers from drowning. Rosenblum would later describe Sidlowski in that moment because the vision of “heroic beauty.”

It was June 7, 1944, or D-Day+1. Sidlowski, a freshly commissioned US Army officer, was standing on the contested Omaha Beach when he spotted an amphibious vehicle sinking into the ocean. The soldiers contained in the watercraft couldn’t escape. As Sidlowski stood there trying to find a way to assist the doomed vessel, soldiers rushed to the shoreline. Amongst the gang was a small team of US Army combat cameramen and cinematographers, including Rosenblum.

Sidlowski understood that if the soldiers on board the watercraft weren’t rescued immediately, they might drown. So he sprung into motion. He and several other other soldiers grabbed a close-by inflatable raft and waded through the waves. They passed dead bodies, debris, and broken equipment as they swam about 200 yards to succeed in the sinking vessel. Then they set to work pulling out the boys inside and loading them onto the raft. Sidlowski ferried the dazed and soaking-wet survivors to the beach before turning around to do it again. The physically taxing effort continued until the entire crew were on shore, dead or alive.

When it was throughout, an exhausted Sidlowski collapsed to his knees over the blanket-covered body of an American soldier. With a weary expression on his face, he turned his gaze inland as if unsure what he should do next. He remained there just long enough for Rosenblum to aim his camera and capture history.

Rosenblum says he never spoke with Sidlowski until after the war. In a project by Daedalus Productions Inc. called “Walter Rosenblum: In Search of Pitt Street,” Rosenblum had the chance to fulfill with Sidlowski and reflect upon that day. “I saw this magnificent man swim out and convey some people off a sinking ship and convey them back into shore,” Rosenblum said. “To me, he was the image of heroic beauty.”

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