"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.
Reconnaissance photograph of a glider landing field used on D-day and 3 photographs of Omaha Beach after a post D-day storm destroyed the artificial "Mulberry" harbor built by the Americans.
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.
Photograph of Lawrence Layden in an LST en route to Omaha Beach 24 days after D-Day and a photograph of an unnamed Normandy town (possibly Cherbourg, France).
Reconnaissance photograph showing the destruction of St. Lo, France. Included are two photographs of General Eisenhower, who visited the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group at site A-9 to witness the saturation bombing of the German line from St. Lo westward to the Atlantic that permitted the Allies to breakout across France.
Photographs of "Site A-9" in Le Molay, France, where the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group established their first base on the continent. Includes a map showing the various headquarters of the group as it advanced through Europe.
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.
