On D-Day, June 6, 1944, paratrooper John Steele’s parachute got caught on the steeple of a church in Normandy. He hung there for two hours, pretending to be dead while the battle raged below. Today, a mannequin still hangs from that steeple to honor his story.
Steele served with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. In the early morning of D-Day, his regiment was dropped behind enemy lines to help secure key towns in Normandy.
Because of scattered drops and heavy German defenses, many paratroopers landed right in and around Sainte-Mère-Église. Sadly, several were killed almost immediately, but Steele’s accident of being caught on the church steeple may have saved his life.
Injured by shrapnel and hanging helplessly, he pretended to be dead as fighting broke out in the square below. German soldiers eventually cut him down and captured him, but he later escaped and returned to Allied forces.
Sainte-Mère-Église became the first French town freed on D-Day, and Steele’s experience turned into one of the most unforgettable stories of the invasion. Today, the mannequin on the church steeple remains as a lasting tribute to his survival and bravery.
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