"Mementoes of Days in Service" details Lawrence Layden's service in World War II from his induction in June 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor, until his formal discharge in December, 1945. Part of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, Layden's squadron provided aerial reconnaissance for Operation Overlord and the assault on Nazi Germany. Through photos and text, Layden's scrapbook follows him from his initial assignment in Louisville, Kentucky to bases in England and continental Europe. The album contains reconnaissance photos used in the assault on Europe, photographs of Layden at various bases throughout the war and several photographs of Buchenwald concentration camp, visited by Layden six days after its liberation.
Low altitude reconnaissance photograph taken by a P-38 Lightning of a Normandy beach on May 19, 1944. Photograph shows obstacles erected by the Germans.
Three photographs of Buchenwald. Top: Furnace in crematorium with bones still visible. Middle: Pile of bones in rear of furnace building. Bottom: Russian inmates near bone pile sketching the gallows.
Three photographs of Buchenwald. Top: Specimen case. Middle: Gallows with bones visible in background. Bottom: Lawrence Layden's guide in camp showing how some inmates were killed.
Aerial photographs of the palace at Versailles. According to the caption, one of the pilots returning from a reconnaissance mission had some leftover film and took these images of the palace.
