World War II D-Day: 101st Airborne in France

This photo was taken 8 June 1944 by a U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer in a French village at St. Marcouf, near Utah Beach, France, part of the historic D-Day invasion that began only two days earlier. It shows a group of 101st Airborne paratroopers at an assembly point. A captured German small tracked vehicle is in the foreground. The book and TV series "Band of Brothers" was based on Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, possibly this Company or a closely related one.

This photo was released by Army censors on 10 June 1944, with the directive that the insignia be deleted.

Today in WW II: 17 Sep 1939 Soviet troops invade Poland from the east. More ↓

17 Sep 1944 Thousands of Allied planes begin airborne assault on Holland, Operation Market Garden.
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