Friday, June 1, 2012

Normandy - St Mere Eglise

St Mere Eglise is known for the incident involving paratrooper John Steele of the 505th PIR, whose parachute caught on the spire of the town church. He could only observe the fighting going on below. He hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead, before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village, capturing thirty Germans and killing another eleven. The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day. (paraphrased from wikipedia)

The church where John Steele's parachute got caught.


They still have a paratrooper hanging in honor (and to draw tourists like myself)

We've seen a lot of beautiful stained glass windows in Europe, but these two inside the church are my favorite.

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