Sainte-Mère-Église & the American Airborne

Behind Utah Beach, in the dark hours before the seaborne landings, thousands of American paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne dropped across the Cotentin to seize the causeways and crossroads inland.

Sainte-Mère-Église became one of the first towns liberated, its church tower forever linked to paratrooper John Steele, whose parachute snagged on the steeple. An effigy still hangs there today.

Nearby, the bridge and flooded causeway at La Fière saw days of desperate fighting, while at Brécourt Manor a small group of paratroopers silenced a German battery in a textbook assault. In the tiny church of Angoville-au-Plain, two American medics treated the wounded of both sides.

See how these places sit in relation to each other on the interactive map.