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Troops from the 101st Airborne with full packs and bazooka in a C-47 transport. This photograph was taken over the English Channel just before the drop behind enemy lines in Normandy, France for "Operation Chicago"
 

The division is part of the VII Corps assault that parachuted in the dark, the morning before H-Hour to seize positions west of Utah Beach. As the assault force approached the French coast, it encountered fog and antiaircraft fire which forced some of the planes to break formation. Paratroopers from both the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions missed the landing zones and were scattered over wide areas.

From 0015 in the darkness of June 6, 1944, when Capt. Frank Lillyman from Skaneateles, NY, was in charge of the Pathfinder group. He became the first Allied soldier to touch French soil and for 33 successive days the 101st Airborne carried the attack to the enemy.