I recently guided around Normandy a delightful group of chums, corralled by Dr. Nicole Howse. Like many of us, they were interested in the human angle, the people behind the photos, or newsreels. One such is this bloke – Lt Kelso Horne – 508th P.I.R.

He always remembered the exact time – 02.06 a.m. – when he jumped on D-Day. Horne was a second lieutenant in 82nd Airborne. He landed alone in a field, so frightened that he hurriedly cut away his parachute harness and with it his bag of rations, socks and underwear. With other Americans, he spent D-Day skirmishing with Germans and trying to gather men from his platoon – they were scattered during the drop. About a week later, he was at the head of an infantry column advancing on a German-held town.

‘This staff car came up alongside us and a General asked where we were going. While the car had stopped a guy got out and says to me – I WANT TO TAKE YOUR PICTURE.

I said, well go ahead and take it then. I looked into the camera and he said to look away, and when I did he took it. He asked my name and the town where I came from and then they left. I didn’t think much of it.’

Wounded by shell fire on July 4th, Kelso was back in England when the photo, taken by Bob Landry, appeared on Life’s cover. ‘I took a lot of stuff from guys in my unit about being a cover boy, I still get it occasionally.’

Back home in Dublin, Georgia, his wife, Doris, was taking care of the couple’s month-old son, Kelso Jr. The post office called her at 6 a.m. the day Life magazine arrived. When she saw the cover she said, ‘I thought he was the best looking one in the whole business.’ She was also glad to see his wedding ring in the picture. It was a standard joke among wives that men took off their wedding bands on the way over to Europe and put them back on, on the way back. Horne died in 2000, aged 88.