Parachutist

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.