Eddie Worth, 93; AP Photographer Covered WWII, War Trials

Eddie Worth, a news photographer who covered the battles for Western Europe after D-day and went on to cover the war trials of Nazi leaders, died Sunday at the age of 93. The cause of death was not announced.

Colleagues in London said Worth, who worked for the Associated Press for most of his career, had a knack for getting to the most difficult assignments.

“He was one of the great photographers. A legend,” said Horst Faas, AP’s senior photo editor based in London.

Worth’s first big success came when he hired a plane to obtain pictures of a mine disaster in northern England. As an AP photographer, he covered the events leading up to World War II and got to know some top Nazi leaders, including Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

One of Worth’s most famous images is of the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London looming through the smoke and fire after a German bombing raid June 7, 1941.

Worth was a combat photographer during the war, landing with Canadian troops in Normandy during the D-day invasion. He accompanied Allied troops for the rest of the war, covering the battles for France and northern Germany.

The Nazi mayor of Hamburg surrendered to Worth, mistaking him for a British officer, at the end of the war, colleagues said.

Worth was sent to cover the trial of Nazi leaders in Nuremberg after the war. He continued to cover trouble spots, including the unrest in Cyprus in the 1950s.

“He couldn’t walk; he’d run everywhere. He was in perpetual motion,” recalled Gerry Warhurst, a retired AP photo editor who worked with Worth.