John Steele (paratrooper)

On the night before D-Day (June 5–6, 1944), American soldiers of the 82nd Airborne were parachuting into the area west of Sainte-Mère-Église in successive waves. The town had been the target of an aerial attack, during which a stray incendiary bomb had set fire to a house east of the town square. The church bell was rung to alert the town to the emergency, and townspeople turned out in large numbers to form a bucket brigade supervised by members of the German garrison. By 1:00 am, the town square was well lit and filled with German soldiers and villagers when two sticks (planeloads of paratroopers) from the 505th PIR's 1st and 2nd battalions 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 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village, capturing thirty Germans and killing another eleven. He was awarded the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart for being wounded in combat.

Though injured, Steele survived his ordeal. He continued to visit the town throughout his life and was an honorary citizen of Ste. Mère Église. The tavern, Auberge John Steele, stands adjacent to the square and maintains his memory through photos, letters and articles hung on its walls.

Steele died of throat cancer on May 16, 1969, in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Today, these events are commemorated by the Airborne Museum (Sainte-Mère-Église) in Place du 6 Juin in the centre of Ste-Mère-Église and in the village church where a parachute with an effigy of Private Steele in his Airborne uniform hangs from the steeple. Bullet holes are still visible in the church's stone walls. Inside, there are stained glass windows, with one depicting the Virgin Mary with paratroopers falling in the foreground.

Steele is portrayed by Red Buttons in the film The Longest Day. He also appears in the first Call of Duty video game.

• Obituary, NY Times, May 17, 1969 John M. Steele, Ex-Paratrooper Who Landed on Steeple D-Day (subscription required)
• Dedication to John M. Steele on 505th Regimental Combat Team website
• SSGT John Marvin Steele at Find a Grave
• Normandy American Heroes, The Story of John Steele, the Sainte-Mère-Eglise Paratrooper