Menu Close

St Mere Eglise

09 December 2014 / 3 Comments

Sainte-Mere-Eglise in Normandy

The Normandy coastline is littered with memorials to the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944. One of them is Sainte-Mere-Eglise, where American paratroopers landed early in the morning. One of the paratroopers, John Steele, is particularly memorable because he got stuck in the village's church tower ...

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
Share
Share

Sainte-Mere-Eglise

Sainte-Mère-Église is a small town in the Manche department in Normandy, France. We drove here after our visit to Arromanches-les-Bainswhere we learnt a lot about the Normandy landings in 1944. The drive from Arromaches to Sainte-Mere-Eglise was less than an hour.

Historical memories of the Normandy invasion

The small town of Sainte-Mère-Église thrives on memories of its part in the Normandy invasion. In the early morning hours of 6 June 1944, paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Parachute Divisions landed to take over Sainte-Mère-Église, which was also the first village to be liberated.

The paratroopers suffered heavy losses during the operation. For example, some landed in burning buildings and were unable to get out. If you want to learn more about these historical events, there are several small museums that you can visit. We focused on checking out the paratrooper in the church tower.

Paratrooper John Steele

One of the most memorable events was when paratrooper John Steel got his parachute stuck in the village church tower. From his exposed position, he could only watch the fighting going on below him. John was wounded in the foot and played dead for several hours. Eventually he was captured by the German soldiers.

According to history, he later managed to escape and join his own troops. He survived the war, against all odds, and today hangs as a statue in his parachute in the steeple of Sainte Mére Église.

St Mere Eglise Frankrike
Do you see that poor soldier dangling?

You might also like:

Semestra i Europa - DubrovnikUnesco World Heritage in Croatia - 10 natural and cultural heritage sites Postel in Belgium - Aunt Anna enters a convent

Subscribe to our newsletter

09 December 2014 20:04
France
,

Next post

Motorhome fixed - at last

Previous post

In a car workshop in France

Administrator

3 Comments

Add yours →

  1. Åsa says:

    What a fate! Have you got everything fixed now? / Åsa

    09 December 2014 - 20:28

    Reply

  2. Ditte says:

    There is a lot of history in these parts! And it's exciting to be there. And isn't this a slightly different monument?

    09 December 2014 - 21:44

    Reply

  3. Comment by post author

    admin says:

    Åsa, there were probably many fates that day... Yes, we have finally got everything organised! Have written about it now...

    Ditte, yes a lot of history and definitely different. At least he was remembered!

    09 December 2014 - 22:36

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ABOUT FREEDOMtravel

FREEDOMtravel is a digital travel magazine, launched in 2009, and operated by FREEDOMtravel AB. The magazine has about 120,000 unique readers/month according to Google Analytics.

Here you will find over 4000 stories on travel, adventure and camping - a new article every morning at 06:00.

CEO and responsible publisher: Peter Bergström

Editor-in-Chief: Helena Bergström

Peter och Helena FREEDOMtravel resemagasin

CONTACT US

Feel free to contact us for questions, tips and cooperation proposals!

FREEDOMtravel: kontakt@freedomtravel.se

The editorial team: redaktion@freedomtravel.se

Social media and newsletters

Feel free to follow us on social media, or fill in your email address below to receive our weekly newsletter with this week's stories.

Facebook: @freedomtravelnews

Instagram: @freedomtravelnews

Youtube: @freedomtravelnews

SEARCH AND FIND ON FREEDOMTRAVEL

Use the search box or browse the categories and archives. You can also scroll to the menu at the top of the page, where you will find country-by-country and landscape-by-landscape destination reports, as well as themed roads, car parks and much more.

Categories

Archive

Cookies
We serve cookies. If you think that's OK, just click "Accept all". You can also choose what kind of cookies you want by clicking "Settings".
Settings Refuse all Accept all
Cookies
Choose what kind of cookies to accept. Your choice will be saved for one year.
Sava Refuse all Accept all