Sainte-Mere-Eglise

This is the church in the Normandy town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, near the Utah and Omaha beaches, landing sites for the Americans on June 6, 1944, D-Day. The church is famous for the story of the parachutist, John Steele, a member of the American airborne troops whose parachute snagged on the church steeple in the early hours of the morning and who hung there for several hours pretending to be dead until rescued by the Germans and made a prisoner. Many of the other paratroopers were shot and killed as they came down on the town, but according to John Steele's account the German troops did not shoot at him because of the church.