Photographer on First Tank Into Firdos

The Marines who were ordered to seize Firdos Square were not entirely sure how to get there, so they asked a photographer to show them the way. These screen shots, taken from a TV video of the first tank entering Firdos Square, show the photographer, Jan Grarup, on the tank’s turret.
Correction: The photographer was Markus Matzel, a German.

Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.