The small Norman town of Ste.-Mére-Eglise is famous today because it lay at the epicentre of the D-Day drop zones for the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.
In the early hours of 6 June, 1944, a house in the town square was burning. The German commander ordered the mayor to call out the locals to form a bucket brigade drawing water from a nearby hand-pump. The firefighting was still in full swing when the first paratroopers landing in the square were shot or captured by the Germans. All save Private John Steele, whose parachute had caught on the church tower and who hung there playing dead. He was eventually taken prisoner, but later escaped and rejoined the fight. He survived the war.
The Airborne Museum next to the town square is worth a visit, if only to walk through the body of a WWII glider and buy a ‘cricket’, one of the clickers that the 101st Airborne used to locate each other in the dark.
The thing to remember is that if you visit SME on a Sunday, the only things likely to be open will be the church, the museum, one restaurant and one boulangerie. Mind you, if you’re happy with a baguette for lunch, then that’s all you need.
An interesting day out, learning another bit of history and a delicious French baguette, what more do you need?
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And wandering the narrow streets is so much easier if everything is closed!
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Took our grandchildren to do the Normandy beaches a year or so ago as they were doing the subject in school, I’m not sure which one of us enjoyed the trip more although I suspect it might have been me.
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The Boy Child is studying WW2 in History at school, so it felt like the perfect time to go. I’m thinking of WW1 battlegrounds and memorials for next time …
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I went and did a few WW1 sites a few years ago and there was a fluke snow storm on the days when we went and standing in a foot of snow in the freezing wind brought it to us how dreadful it must have been for the troops. If you are interested I wrote a play about WW1 which you can down load. https://www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk/product/first-world-war-radio-drama/
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Thank you for link – I’ll take a look.
A friend and I did the Somme and Flanders in February – it gave us a flavour of how awful it must have been.
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Another interesting adventure.
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There’s more to come!
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How wonderful that John Steele is so strikingly remembered! I am struck again, in your description and photos, how tranquil these places are now, and yet how much has happened in their pasts. Your young man does a very fine salute.
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I’ll tell him you said so!
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