1944: A British paratrooper snaps a few selfies while falling
 

1944: A British paratrooper snaps a few selfies while falling
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A British paratrooper takes a picture of himself while parachuting.

Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images

In 1944, an editor at Picture Post, a UK photojournalism magazine similar to LIFE, assigned photographer Haywood Magee to shoot a story on British paratroopers, which were still a relatively new division of the armed forces.

Magee accompanied a unit of soldiers on a training exercise as they packed into the cramped hold of an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber and one by one dropped through a gun turret aperture which had been modified to form an egress hatch.

**t content merely with photos of the troops jumping from the plane and landing on the ground, Magee took his assignment one step further. He passed a camera to one of the soldiers and asked him to shoot some pictures on the way down. Read more...

More about Selfies, Britain, Parachute, World War Ii, and Historyhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Mashable/~4/0KqdHaRlEss