Beginning with WWII, infantry gained tremendous mobility by parachuting into target zones. Soldiers could paradrop behind enemy lines as a small force meant to infiltrate, or paratroopers could deploy en masse. On June 6, 1944 over ten thousand paratroopers landed in German-occupied Normandy before the rest of the Allied invasion force. Over eight hundred transport planes launched from nine airfields in England to paradrop the soldiers across the English Channel in less than six hours.