1944: A
British paratrooper snaps a few
selfies while falling
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.
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