Normandy church honors American paratrooper

(FOX NEWS) – The bond between a Normandy town and the Americans who liberated it is memorialized in a unique way – on a church where an American paratrooper found refuge 75 years ago.

On the church, dangling from the clock tower, is a dummy paratrooper. It hangs on the only church in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first village liberated by the Allies, and is a reminder of how the parish became an important part of World War II history.

It was there on June 6, 1944, where John Steele of the 82nd Airborne landed on the pinnacle of the church tower, dangling for two hours. He played dead before the Germans took him prisoner, but 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 another 11.

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