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.
Not 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.
The soldier gamely obliged, snapping a handful of slightly unfocused selfies as he drifted to earth.
The results were not exactly professional quality, but they were unique enough to sell copies of the magazine.
When the March 18, 1944 issue of Picture Post was published, it featured a heroically posed soldier on the cover and an irresistible headline: “A Paratrooper Makes a Jump — And We Jump with Him."
Paratroopers open the ventral egress hatch of a Whitley bomber and prepare to jump.
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
A paratrooper gets into position for his jump.
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
A paratrooper free-falls through the egress hatch.
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
Photographed from the ground, a paratrooper comes in for landing.
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
A paratrooper detaches his chute after a successful landing.
Image: Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images
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