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Monument to John Steele, whose parachute caught on a church pinnacle on D-Day. Today, these events are commemorated by the Airborne Museum (Sainte-Mère-Église) in Place du 6 Juin in the centre of Ste-Mère-Église and in the village church where a parachute with an effigy of Private Steele in his Airborne uniform hangs from the steeple. [2]
Sainte-Mère-Église lies in a flat area of the Cotentin Peninsula known locally as le Plain (as opposed to the standard French term la plaine). [6] The Plain is bounded on the west by the Merderet River and by the English channel to the east, and by the communes of Valognes and Carentan to the north and south, respectively.
The Museum is located in Sainte-Mère-Église, in the La Manche region of Normandy, close to the beaches used for the Normandy landings. Sainte-Mère-Église became famous because of paratrooper John Steele whose parachute snagged on the belfry of the church on June 6, 1944, leaving him suspended in the air.
With the help of a Frenchman who led them into the town, the 3rd Battalion captured Sainte-Mère-Église by 0430 against "negligible opposition" from German artillerymen. [10] The 2nd Battalion established a blocking position on the northern approaches to Sainte-Mère-Église with a single platoon while the rest reinforced the 3rd Battalion ...
Liberty Road (French La voie de la Liberté) is the commemorative way marking the route of the Allied forces from D-Day in June 1944. It starts in Sainte-Mère-Eglise, in the Manche département in Normandy, France, travels across Northern France to Metz and then northwards to end in Bastogne in Belgium, on the border of Luxembourg.
This account is disputed by both the Company and Regimental commanders. This version states that Company A was unable to take the bridge near la Fière, a farm two miles (3 km) west of Sainte Mère Église, despite the assistance of several hundred troopers from both the 507th and 508th PIRs that had jumped in the area.
A task force led by Colonel Edson Raff that included 16 Sherman tanks of the 746th Tank Battalion, four armored cars, and a squad of infantry worked their way up from the beach, but were stopped from reinforcing Sainte-Mère-Église by a line of German defenders 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the town. [83]
Each mission consisted of three regiment-sized air landings. The drop zones of the 101st Airborne Division were east and south of Sainte-Mère-Église and lettered A, C and D from north to south. (Drop Zone B had belonged to the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) before the plan was changed on May 27.)