See Parachute Memorial in Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy, France

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The historic Church of Sainte-Mère-Église is a central landmark in Normandy’s D-Day story. To this day, the town displays a parachute and mannequin on the church’s bell tower as a memorial to the famous event where Private John Steele of the 82nd Airborne got his parachute caught on the steeple on June 6, 1944.  By 1:00 am, the town square was well lit and filled with German soldiers and villagers when two planeloads of paratroopers from the 1st and 2nd battalion's, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, were dropped in error directly over the village. The paratroopers were easy targets, and Steele was one of the few not killed. He was wounded in the foot by a burst of flak.[1] His parachute caught in one of the pinnacles of the church tower, leaving him hanging on the side of the church. Steele hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead, before the Germans took him prisoner. He escaped four hours later from the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 505th's 3rd Battalion attacked the village, capturing 30 Germans and killing another 11. He was awarded the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart for being wounded in combat. Inside the church are memorials including stained-glass windows dedicated to the airborne forces.

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