SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE Commemorative Challenge Coin in Capsule D-DAY NORMANDY FRANCE PARATROOPER

D-DAY BATTLE

The town played a significant part in the World War II Normandy landings because of its position in the middle of route N13, which the Germans would have used to counterattack Allied landings on Utah and Omaha Beaches.

In the early morning of 6 June 1944, mixed units of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and U.S. 101st Airborne Divisions occupied the town in Mission Boston, making it one of the first towns liberated in the invasion.

The early airborne landings, at about 1:40 a.m., resulted in heavy casualties. Some buildings in town caught fire that night, illuminating the sky, and making easy targets of the descending men. Some were killed by the fire. Many hanging from trees and utility poles were shot.

A well-known incident involved paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), whose parachute got caught on the tower roof and spire of the town church. He hung there for two hours, pretending to be dead until the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped and rejoined his division when U.S. troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village, capturing 30 Germans and killing 11. The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day by actor Red Buttons.

THE VILLAGE IN 1944

At 5 a.m., a force led by Lieutenant Colonel Edward C. Krause of the 505th PIR took the town with little resistance. Allegedly, the German garrison was confused and had retired for the night. However, heavy German counterattacks began later in the day and into the next. The lightly armed troops held the town until reinforced by tanks from nearby Utah Beach in the afternoon of 7 June.

Krause and Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H. Vandervoort received the Distinguished Service Cross for their actions during the capture of the town. Sgt. George Bowler Tullidge III received the Bronze Star; his parents would distribute A Paratrooper's Faith, a collection of Tullidge's letters home plus Bible verses, throughout the 82nd Airborne until 1995. 2nd Lt. Thomas J. Tighe of the 70th Tank Battalion was killed when his tank was hit by German artillery fire on the morning of June 7; he received the Silver Star posthumously.

Paratrooper Henry Langrehr crashed through a greenhouse roof, as retold in The Longest Day. On 6 November 2007, he received the Legion of Honour medal from the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy along with five other men.

SOURCE: Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-M%C3%A8re-%C3%89glise

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KEYWORDS: Sainte-Mère-Église D-Day Normandy France Utah Omaha Beach 82nd 101st Airborne 505th PIR Paratroop Paratroopers Victory WWII Band of Brothers The Longest Day Commemorative John Steele