The photograph was taken during the preparation phase of the Normandy campaign in spring 1944, when London served as headquarters and assembly area for the Allied forces. Buckingham Palace remained under guard throughout the war; the Royal Family had persisted in the London palace despite German bombing attacks on it, which held symbolic significance for British wartime morale. Jack Lieb captured this scene with his private 16mm Kodachrome camera before he departed with Allied troops to the south English coast and subsequently for the crossing to Normandy.