Jack Wilkes with his camera in China. (Photo by Jack Wilkes/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Jack Wilkes with his camera in China. (Photo by Jack Wilkes/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

A disabled Twentieth Century Fox cameraman named Clarence Albert Bach ran a photography high school near Los Angeles called Fremont, which produced several LIFE photographers, including George Strock, John Florea and Bob Landry. Jack Wilkes (born 1907), who had arrived in the United States from his native Wales when he was just a child, was among that select group. Like so many of his era, Wilkes covered WWII for LIFE, and saw much fighting in China as he roamed with his frequent collaborator, writer Theodore H. White.

Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

A Chinese infantryman. (Photo by Jack Wilkes/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

A Chinese infantryman. (Photo by Jack Wilkes/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

More Like This

Representatives of 14 NATO nations (including US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (fore, far R) signing a pact admitting Germany as 15th member in a ceremony at Palais de Chaillot. (Photo by Frank Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Frank Scherschel

Cleveland Browns Vince Costello (#50) wrapping a tackle around Green Bay Packers running back Jim Taylor. (Photo by Arthur Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Arthur Rickerby

Students Steve Poster and Jessalyn Gray (fore C) talking at side of taxi while crowd of White Supremacists taunt them. (Photo by Joe Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Joe Scherschel

Street scene during business hours. (Photo by Peter Stackpole/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Peter Stackpole

Members of 1st Marine Division carrying their wounded during the Vietnam War, 1966. (Photo by Larry Burrows/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

Larry Burrows

Pitcher Satchel Paige with fans, New York City, 1941. (Photo by George Strock/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation) Photographer

George Strock