The WW2 Liberation of Saint Mère Église: A D-Day Story

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It was one of many small towns nestled in Normandy, France,

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occupied by Nazi Germany for years now.

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On the night of June 5th, 1944, its serene streets and humble homes

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were about to become the stage for a pivotal moment in World War II.

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As the clock struck midnight, the tranquility was shattered

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by the hum of aircraft engines.

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Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division were being dropped into

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the area with a crucial mission to secure Saint Mère Église and

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prevent German reinforcements from reaching the nearby beaches where

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Allied forces would soon land.

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However, the operation did not go as planned.

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Strong winds and navigational errors scattered the paratroopers across

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the countryside, and some even found themselves landing directly in the town

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square, right amidst German troops.

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One such paratrooper was Private John Steele.

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As he descended, his parachute snagged on the steeple of the

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town church, leaving him dangling helplessly above the chaos below.

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Steele, displaying remarkable presence of mind, played dead as the

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battle raged on, hanging there for hours in a surreal tableau of war.

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Despite the unexpected challenges, the paratroopers regrouped and

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launched their assault on the town.

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Fierce fighting ensued, with bullets tearing through the night

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and explosions lighting up the sky.

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By dawn, however, the Allies had gained control of Saint Marie Eglise.

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This victory was a crucial step in securing a foothold in Normandy and

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advancing the liberation of France.

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The bravery and determination of the paratroopers in Saint Marie

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Eglise have not been forgotten.

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The town's church steeple Parachute in tribute to steel's harrowing experience.

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And the Airborne Museum stands as a testament to the soldiers

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who fought and died there.

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Saint Mere Eglis remains a symbol of the courage and sacrifice of the

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allied forces during World War II, a poignant reminder of the high cost

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of freedom, and the incredible spirit of those who fought to preserve it.

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Welcome to Talk With History.

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Okay, so today we're going to talk about a town that, that a lot of

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our audience may actually be semi familiar with because it was featured

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prominently in Band of Brothers.

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Yes.

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And you got to visit there, and this is a very, I'll call it,

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American friendly town in France.

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So tell us about Saint Mère Église, one of the first French towns liberated

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after the Normandy D Day invasion.

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Yeah.

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St.

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Marigles.

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Like I had to ask people many times how to pronounce it over and over again.

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And it's, it's also in the longest day.

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So most people will recognize it initially from the longest day.

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And then it does play a big role in Band of Brothers, but this town is

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synonymous with D Day because of what it means for the allied troops, what

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it means in the landing of Utah beach and the airborne, but it's an old town.

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Town in France and it's close to the Normandy Beach It's the first major

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town behind Utah Beach and not far from the beach But it's also on a

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major roadway the n13 Which is this major road that the Allies would need?

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Logistically to get the tanks and the troops and the men into theater to fight

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the Nazis So it's it's a major road It's founded in the 11th century, so

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the earliest records date back to 1080, and the Latin name means Church of St.

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Mary or Holy Mother Church.

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So if you think of St.

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Mary Iglesias, it's like St.

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Mary Church or Mother Mary.

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So that's, the name is very Catholic or Latin Catholic.

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that kind of makes sense, because the town chapel, the

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town church, is very central.

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It's very central.

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And like back in the day, the 10, you know.

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Uh, that's what was the French society was based around the church.

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And so the town was involved in the hundred years war.

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It was involved in the wars of religion.

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This is an old town, but when it comes to D Day, it's such a significant part

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because it's right behind Utah beach.

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And because it's one of the first places that it's going to

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start to see action that night.

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From June 5th from midnight on into June 6th is when the first Jumps will

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start and they start about 1 40 AM.

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You're going to get the 82nd Airborne and the 101st Airborne jumping in that

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area to support the landings of Utah beach again, to, to take control of

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these roads logistically, to be able to get these tanks and these people.

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into France.

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And knowing that the Germans have flooded a lot of the farmland,

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there's a, there's less roads available and this is a major one.

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And so you're going to get this 82nd Airborne, 101st Airborne.

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Now things don't go as planned and people get scattered.

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That's exactly what happens to Dick Winters.

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He gets, he's far away from where he should be.

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And I think that's because a multitude of things, right?

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In the opening, we said, part of it's wins and high, and then this and the

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other, but also, and we talked about it when we did a lot of masters of the air

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content a while back, there was pilots and soldiers that we're talking about, some of

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these pilots who were flying were flying twice as fast as they were supposed to.

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Yeah.

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I mean, people are nervous.

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They were nervous, and and that's what happens in

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what they call, the fog of war.

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You fly too fast, or, the conditions aren't what you're expecting, and all

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of a sudden, these airborne troopers, rather than being within the area that

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they had planned on being dropped, they're getting dropped all over the place.

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Yeah.

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And as much as you can practice this, you have to remember these

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pilots are, are relatively new.

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They've just been trained to be pilots.

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A lot of these guys haven't flown a lot of missions in war.

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A lot of these guys haven't dropped over theater yet.

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Think about it.

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This is our first invasion.

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This is America's first invasion into Europe.

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dropping troops.

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So, those landings started about 1 40 AM, but they result in heavy casualties

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because like you said, going too fast, these paratroopers are very heavy.

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They're carrying 60, 70, 80 pounds on them.

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They're hitting these water areas, which I say are flooded and they're

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flooded more than six feet or seven feet, the basic height of a man.

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And when they have all that weight on them, they basically are drownded.

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And then there was bombing that also happened that night and some

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of these buildings in town caught fire and they illuminated the sky.

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So as these men are jumping, they become targets in the sky.

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And so the Germans who are made aware of this attack happening, come out and are

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able to fire on these men as they land.

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And you get men, Who are descending and hitting telephone poles.

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They're hitting trees and they're easily shot because they're

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not, they're not cut down.

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And this is where you get the John Steele story.

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Yeah, and so that is, I don't think I realized until we started doing

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this, that's based on a true story.

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story.

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It's a very unique story when you think about it, because of all the

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things to get hung up on, you're going to hit a church steeple like

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and then he plays dead, probably for a couple hours.

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And I think you had mentioned in the video that eventually, he's trying

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to cut himself down, he drops his knife, he alerts the German soldier,

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that German soldier tries to shoot him, shoots him in the foot, and

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then another paratrooper shoots that.

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So he actually gets saved because the German who was shooting him gets shot,

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that other, his counterpart, gets shot.

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Eventually, the Germans capture him.

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But when the Airborne takes the town, he takes the purse.

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So it's a very interesting story, especially for a movie like The Longest

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Day, which I haven't watched yet.

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I need to go watch it.

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It's another John Wayne movie.

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Another John Wayne movie, Red Buttons plays John Steele in it.

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John Steele is of the 505th Parachute Infantry.

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He's in the 82nd Airborne.

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So you get the 101st 82nd Airborne that are jumping that night.

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And when I'll talk more about the town looks like today, but like you said,

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he gets hung up on the church steeple.

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And today there is still a mannequin hanging from a parachute on

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the church steeple to tell that story because it's a true story.

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And it's one of those fantastic.

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Truth is stranger than fiction, right?

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Like you can telling the truth is so much more amazing than a

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fictional story would have been.

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Well, and aside from, well, you'll talk a little bit about the

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Airborne Museum that's there in St.

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Mary Eglis, but it's also a way for the town to continue to

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recognize what these men did that

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yeah.

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So when you think about it, this, these first jumps happened

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at 1 40 AM by 5 AM, a force.

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led by the 505th Parachute Regiment took the town with little resistance.

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So think about three hours later, John stills hang in for two hours.

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He gets cut down.

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He's basically prisoner for an hour and then the town is taken by 5 a.

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m.

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So it's one of the.

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first towns liberated by the Americans.

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And that the story, the town is so proud of that story.

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They were under Nazi occupation for four years.

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And here it takes a little less than four hours to take the town back.

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They just even today they embrace that story so much that John Steele

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Mannequin is part of their town.

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It hangs in their town square.

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Now I don't think it's on the right.

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side of the steeple.

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I think he actually in real life was on the other side of the steeple,

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but because that doesn't face the town square, they hang the mannequin

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on the other side for the story.

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in the face.

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Is the trip

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Like you said, he drops his knife.

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He gets shot in the foot.

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He's eventually cut down, but he does help capture the town.

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He goes on to keep fighting.

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The church has since become very much like a shrine.

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to the paratroopers.

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And they have even have stained glass windows with the Virgin

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Mary and paratroopers beside

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It's really cool.

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If you haven't seen our video, the link will be in the show notes of this podcast.

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I would encourage you to go to go see that because one, the movie, The

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Longest Day, we put some clips in there.

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So it shows it's a good representation of what happened that day.

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But to you, you got some shots of the stained glass and it was really neat.

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Cause I actually missed it the first time when I was looking

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through the footage and you said, Hey, no, go back and look at this.

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And so I was able to zoom in and you can see that stained glass.

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I've never seen stained glass like this before with, you see kind of the The St.

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Mary, you see Mary there, classic pose, head, head bent over a little bit.

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But then on the sides right next to her are paratroopers in their paratrooper

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green with a helmet on and boots and a parachute in stained glass.

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It's really beautiful and it's really neat.

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Yeah.

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And like we have spoken before, for so many things to go right that night.

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I mean, things went wrong, but so many things to go right.

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that you didn't have as much of a defense by the Nazis and for this

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town to be liberated so quickly.

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We believe that it was some kind of divine intervention there.

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And so for the town to embrace that and put it into something

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permanent, like stained glass with the Virgin Mary beside paratroopers.

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It's just a very interesting thing to see.

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They also have a Joan of Arc in there and a just a generic depiction of

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Jesus, but it's a very beautiful church.

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The church still has remnants of bullet shots and things

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in the side of the church.

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So it's very much still a just a relic of D Day and you can go and see it.

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And the town square is just beautiful, but they Love the story of D Day

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and the liberation of their town so much so that I was there that day.

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80 years later, and they had parades of American tanks, all these French

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men and women dressed as Americans.

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It was very neat.

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And they just embrace Americans so much that there is a monument there.

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to the 82nd and the 101st Airborne.

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And people leave poppies and different things there, but

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they've just embraced that story.

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And if you walk around the town, there are different areas with

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little plaques and things about different paratroopers that fell into.

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this backyard or into this greenhouse or into this garden and what they may have

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come up against or what happened to them.

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And even in different areas, they still have parachutes that they'll hang over

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trees and things just to give you a sense of what the town felt like that day, that

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morning, when all of these, Parachute is basically descended on the town.

Scott: 00:15:43

Yeah, it was, it was really neat to watch it and, and seeing the

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footage the parade footage with, I mean, these are old tanks that are,

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that was even just neat because you don't see that in the States, right?

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You just don't see parades like that.

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And, and these are legitimate old World War II tanks that

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they're driving through the town.

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It was really cool to see

Jenn: 00:16:03

It was really neat.

Jenn: 00:16:04

And when you think about these roads are basically a tank wide and they're

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driving these tanks down these cobblestone old roads and people

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are loving it and they're waving and they're just having a great time.

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And these tanks look legit.

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Like they could have just, Been made yesterday.

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They've taken such good care of them.

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It's, it's, it was so cool.

Jenn: 00:16:28

So what else they have in st Mariglis if Town Square walk around again

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see the plaques to the different airborne that were there that day But they have the

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entire airborne museum is there and that was a great museum to show what but the

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airborne kind of went through that day.

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They have an example of what it's like to board a C 47 aircraft

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and jump from a C 47 aircraft.

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You get reminiscence of it in Band of Brothers when they're all

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lining up and you have the red light that goes green and they just

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start jumping on the static line.

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It's the same kind of feeling.

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You go through, you walk through, you get to see what it's like,

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dark night the jostling of the aircraft, not knowing where you are

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and you're basically just jumping.

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It also lets you see the amount of weight these men are carrying on them

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because besides their jump gear, they're carrying on whatever ammunition they need.

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They need, they're carrying on whatever gear they need and just

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all the weight they have upon their bodies as they jump not only makes

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them fall to the ground faster.

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And since these men were going low and fast, that was put at them a danger.

Jenn: 00:17:36

But just.

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the sheer weight if they're going to hit water, they just not going to

Jenn: 00:17:40

have the time to cut themselves free.

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And that's also when men were hitting burning buildings or burning areas,

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they didn't have the time to redirect themselves because it's so fast and

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you're so heavy that you don't have that opportunity to avoid the fire.

Jenn: 00:17:57

So you have cases of that as

Scott: 00:17:59

If you ever get a chance to see, somebody parachuting or

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something like that, it looks like they're falling relatively slowly.

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You don't realize and you and I I think you you did it for My birthday or

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something one year we went skydiving.

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We did tandem skydiving thing And so I was strapped to somebody who you know

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knew what he was doing and when you're falling you realize how fast you're

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falling But then also you don't realize and that when the parachute pulls it's

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not violent you slow down But then when you get closer to the ground you realize

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how fast you are still falling You know, and that's modern day parachutes.

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These are World War II era, the airborne concept is still relatively new, a

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few years and all the gear and all the other stuff that's going on, right?

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You, you, you add all of that stuff up together.

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together What

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these paratroopers were doing and how they were jumping in

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is pretty incredible and, and.

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very, very dangerous, especially at the time.

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Like today we have much better equipment, much more control for

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your average parachuter coming down.

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So it really was incredible what they were doing.

Jenn: 00:19:07

It was, and that's, this town has embraced that story.

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And that museum has embraced that story.

Jenn: 00:19:13

They actually have the gliders were also a big part of that day.

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And they have one of the only examples of the Waco glider there that you can see it.

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So gliders are big.

Jenn: 00:19:25

If we ever talk about the Pegasus bridge The English had the gliders where you

Jenn: 00:19:29

could get about 40 men, 30 men in a glider

Scott: 00:19:32

we referenced them, I think, Latin last week or the week before his episode.

Jenn: 00:19:35

it's quiet.

Jenn: 00:19:36

You don't hear it and they can land and they can really

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land right under your nose.

Jenn: 00:19:40

That's why they took the Pegasus Bridge so easily.

Jenn: 00:19:42

But they have an example of it in there.

Jenn: 00:19:45

I want people to remember two paratroopers as much as they're known for jumping.

Jenn: 00:19:50

Jumping is just the easiest basic part of what they're doing.

Jenn: 00:19:56

They're soldiers.

Jenn: 00:19:58

They're there to fight.

Jenn: 00:20:00

They're there.

Jenn: 00:20:00

They're infantry.

Jenn: 00:20:01

When you think about it, they're there to fight.

Jenn: 00:20:03

Jumping is just how they get there.

Jenn: 00:20:05

And once they're there, they just become, they become

Jenn: 00:20:08

soldiers, ground troops, ground

Scott: 00:20:10

It's a smaller part of their training than people realize.

Jenn: 00:20:12

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:20:12

And so yeah, getting the jump right is so important, but getting the jump

Jenn: 00:20:17

right is, is the easiest basic part.

Jenn: 00:20:21

And then you're going to have to start fighting a war.

Jenn: 00:20:24

And that's what you know, when you see in Band of Brothers,

Jenn: 00:20:27

jumping in is how they get there.

Jenn: 00:20:29

But it's really when they get on the ground and then they have to

Jenn: 00:20:32

start doing the tactics, the ground tactics that comes into play.

Jenn: 00:20:35

So it's, you're, you're like double the soldier there.

Jenn: 00:20:39

But I really loved being in that town.

Jenn: 00:20:41

I recommend if you're going to go visit France and Normandy, you have to go to St.

Jenn: 00:20:47

Mere Eglis.

Jenn: 00:20:47

I think of all the towns associated with D Day, it is the most important one.

Jenn: 00:20:54

It is the one that was in support of Utah Beach.

Jenn: 00:20:56

It is the.

Jenn: 00:20:57

first one liberated.

Jenn: 00:20:58

It is, they have embraced that story there.

Jenn: 00:21:01

They love Americans there.

Jenn: 00:21:03

You can see the mannequin of John Steele on the steeple there.

Jenn: 00:21:07

And it's just a place.

Jenn: 00:21:09

They have recently unveiled a statue of President Eisenhower, General

Jenn: 00:21:13

Eisenhower, as he preferred to be called, but in full World War II uniform.

Jenn: 00:21:19

So it looks like the statue at the D Day memorial.

Jenn: 00:21:24

and the statue at his at his presidential museum in Kansas.

Jenn: 00:21:28

So that is also right there beside the steeple as well.

Jenn: 00:21:32

So it's a great place to go and visit.

Scott: 00:21:33

Yeah, it was a fun video to make because it's much more, able

Scott: 00:21:38

to be a little more celebratory with a video like this and the

Scott: 00:21:42

topic was really, really neat.

Scott: 00:21:47

With the successful securing of Saint Mère Église and the other key towns on

Scott: 00:21:51

D Day, the Allied forces turned their attention to using these strategic points

Scott: 00:21:55

to push further into occupied France.

Scott: 00:21:58

The beaches of Normandy became a crucial supply and reinforcement

Scott: 00:22:02

hubs for the advancing troops.

Scott: 00:22:05

From these beachheads, the Allies initiated Operation Overlord, the

Scott: 00:22:09

codename for the Battle of Normandy.

Scott: 00:22:12

This involved a series of meticulously planned operations

Scott: 00:22:16

to break through German defenses and liberate occupied territories.

Scott: 00:22:20

One of the first objectives was to link the five beachheads,

Scott: 00:22:22

ensuring that they would be safe.

Scott: 00:22:24

A continuous front line and facilitating the movement of troops and supplies.

Scott: 00:22:29

As the Allied forces advanced, they encountered fierce resistance

Scott: 00:22:32

from entrenched German troops.

Scott: 00:22:34

The hedgerows of the Normandy countryside provided natural defensive positions,

Scott: 00:22:38

making progress slow and costly.

Scott: 00:22:41

Despite this, the Allies pressed on, employing coordinated infantry, armor,

Scott: 00:22:46

and air support to overcome the obstacles.

Scott: 00:22:50

key towns such as Carentan, Caen, and Bordeaux.

Scott: 00:22:53

And Saint Lô became major battlegrounds.

Scott: 00:22:56

The capture of the French port city, Caen, in particular was

Scott: 00:23:00

critical due to its strategic location and transportation network.

Scott: 00:23:04

The British and Canadian forces faced weeks of intense fighting before

Scott: 00:23:07

finally securing the town in mid July.

Scott: 00:23:11

The liberation of these towns allowed the Allies to establish vital supply

Scott: 00:23:15

lines and command posts, enabling them to sustain their push into France.

Scott: 00:23:21

The breakout from the Normandy beach has begun.

Scott: 00:23:23

culminated in Operation Cobra, launched in late July 1944.

Scott: 00:23:30

This offensive aimed to exploit the weakened German positions

Scott: 00:23:33

and achieve a rapid advance through the French countryside.

Scott: 00:23:37

The operation succeeded beyond expectations, leading to the encirclement

Scott: 00:23:41

of German forces in the Falaise pocket in their eventual retreat.

Scott: 00:23:46

With the German defenses in disarray, the Allies surged forward, liberating

Scott: 00:23:50

Paris by the end of August.

Scott: 00:23:52

The momentum continued as they drove towards the German border, liberating

Scott: 00:23:55

town after town and village after village.

Scott: 00:24:00

The successful use of the Normandy beachheads and towns as springboards

Scott: 00:24:03

for further operations was a testament to the meticulous planning

Scott: 00:24:06

and bravery of the Allied forces.

Scott: 00:24:08

Their efforts paved the way for the eventual liberation of France.

Scott: 00:24:12

And the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany, marking a turning point in World War II.