RHH's photos with the keyword: june 6, 1944

These are a couple more photos of the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach. Visiting there was an incredibly moving experience.

Many soldiers killed on D-Day and thereafter were often first buried with their rifle and helmet as a grave marker. When time allowed they were later reburied in one of the many cemeteries in Normandy and the rest of France. This example is in the visitors' center at the American Cemetery near Omaha Beach.

This church window was dedicated on June 6, 1969, the 25th anniversary of the D-Day landings. It commemorates the liberation of Ste. Mere Eglise by the troops of the505th Division of 82nd Airborne, many of the troops present for the commemoration.

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.

This is the steeple of the church in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, a town near the Utah and Omaha beaches used by the Americans on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The effigy is of a man named John Steele of the 505th Parachute Regiment whose parachute snagged on the steeple. He hung there for several hours pretending to be dead until rescued and made a prisoner by the German soldiers in the town. According to his own account they did not shoot him, as they did many other paratroopers who were descending on the town, because they thought he was protected by the Mary to whom the church is dedicated.