normandy – gliders

American C-47 Dakotas swirl over a typical stretch of Norman countryside, over the Cotentin Peninsula, with hedgerows and trees bordering fields, after cutting loose their CG-4A gliders over Landing Zone W, between Les Forges and Sébeville/Les Fontaines. The French N13 highway runs through the center of the image while the town of St-Mère-Église is two miles away (to the left in the photograph). The aircraft were participating in Operation “Elmira,” the reinforcement of the US 82nd Airborne Division on the evening of June 6, 1944. (AP)