![Horse Eating Hay Horse Eating Hay, Ruins of Cassino, Italy, 1946 by Tony Vaccaro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-02.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
It’s not hard to understand why, in 1944, a young man with an eye for photography might want to join the official photographic ranks of the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps. As TIME explained that year, they had the twofold mission of both relaying the news of the troops at work so that citizens could keep up with the news and documenting the action for future War Department records.
“Like scores of similar companies on other battlefronts, they had had a high proportion of casualties (seven dead, 14 wounded, three captured out of 62),” the magazine noted. “But their work had paid off by helping to make the battles of World War II the best understood in history.”
So when Tony Vaccaro, then 21, was drafted, that “small, brave group” was where he wanted to end up. But, as he relates in the new HBO documentary Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro, he was told he was too young to qualify as an Army photographer.
Undeterred, despite the knowledge that an infantryman was not supposed to be taking pictures, Vaccaro (not to be confused with the correspondent of the same name who worked for the Associated Press during a similar time span) decided to bring his camera along when he went to war. Before the war ended, he had taken more than 8,000 photos—even some that he developed in helmets while on after-dark missions. They offer a rare, close-up view of what a soldier really sees.
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After a post-war stint with Stars and Stripes, Vaccaro transitioned to a career in news, sports and fashion photography, a world away from the battlegrounds where his camera had proved so crucial. As these images show, it was a drastic transition—but what he had seen during the war stayed with Vaccaro throughout.
Underfire will receive a Veterans Day HBO Go and On Demand preview on Friday before officially debuting on HBO on Nov. 14.
![Bonafreno Man Bonafreno Man by Tony Vaccaro](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-01.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Horse Eating Hay Horse Eating Hay, Ruins of Cassino, Italy, 1946 by Tony Vaccaro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-02.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Crying Girl Crying Girl, Italy 1947, by Tony Vaccaro](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-03.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![De Kooning Portrait 001 De Kooning Portrait, East Hampton, 1953 by Tony Vaccaro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-04.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Anna Magnani Close up 001 Anna Magnani Close up, Rome Italy, 1956, by Tony Vaccaro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-05.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mary Hilen_Polka Dots_Look_'58 001 Mary Hilen, Polka Dots, New York 1958 by Tony Vaccaro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-06.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Givenchy 001 Givenchy. Paris, France, 1961 by Tony Vaccaro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-07.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mercuri Melina Mercuri, Athens, 1965 by Tony Vacarro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-08.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![SB02_sunmoon_01 003 The Moon, Look NYC, 1969 by Tony Vaccaro.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161028-tony-vaccaro-09.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com