Day trip from Paris to Sainte Mère Eglise aboard a Van - Private Tour (7 pax)

The Iron Mike memorial is a statue of an American paratrooper. It is named after St Michael, a saint of the Airborne. The memorial is a replica of the one at the U.S. Army Infantry School in Fort Benning USA. The Iron Mike memorial was unveiled on June 7, 1997 by Major-General Kellogg, commander of the 82nd Airborne who made a jump with his men that day out of a plane.

Jumping on the night of D-Day, the 82nd Airborne had to capture the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Holding the town, however, would have meant little without also holding the roads to and from it. One such route had a bottleneck: the La Fière Bridge a small stone bridge at La Fière manor, 700 yards to the west of the outskirts. The manor itself was a small group of buildings a grenade-throw away from the bridge. On the far side of the bridge, the road led west, the small hamlet of Cauquigny standing by it two-thirds of a mile away.

Securing La Fière Bridge fell to the 505th PIR. The 1st Battalion was one of the few units that night to jump on time and land in its designated drop zone to the east of the bridge, between it and the town. They quickly learned that things were not as expected: the Germans have flooded large areas of Normandy and the tiny Merderet River running north-south under the bridge was now a marsh 1,000 yards across at its narrowest. The elevated road between the bridge and Cauguigny became a causeway surrounded by water, providing no cover.

Sainte Mere Eglise became known to the world after the film The Longest Day because of the paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Steele indeed landed on the church's steeple and pretended to be dead in order to avoid being shot by the Germans.

He stayed put, hanging in the air, for two long hours and watched helplessly as the Germans shot his comrades around him.

Nowadays the Church is still standing in the middle of the town square.

The municipality of Sainte Mère l’Eglise has hung a dummy US paratrooper and his parachute on the steeple of the church and so has found the finest tribute that could be given to John Steele and all his comrades who lost their lives under German bullets.

In addition, two stained glass windows were created for the church, in order to commemorate the liberation of the town by 82nd Airborne Division on June 6,1944.One of them depicts the Virgin with two paratroopers and the second one is Private John M. Steele (1912–1969)

Live the history of the Normandy invasion at the Airborne Museum

At the heart of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, facing the church where John Steele famously was caught, hanging from the bell tower by his parachute. The Airborne Museum makes you live and understand the D-Day from the invasion preparations in England, through to the battles for liberation.

Few miles from Normandy landing beaches, the Airborne Museum has become the largest museum in Europe dedicated to the american paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne engaged in the context of the Normandy invasion in 1944, during the Second World Word.

Board on mythic planes and discover historic items which bring you in June 1944.
Get into the minds of the troopers and feel the intensity of the combat.

The guide is now taking you to visit the beatiful maintained American Cemetery in Colleville sur Mer which overlooks Omaha Beach nearby. The 180 acre site contains 9,387 perfectly aligned white crosses and a memorial chapel which adds the finishing touches to this moving scene, allowing visitors to reflect on the price of war.

While walking along row upon row of white grave headstones, your historian guide will share with you stories of soldiers who fought in the vicinities and then were awarded for gallantry the highest miltary decorations.

On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

The memorial consists of a semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end containing large maps and narratives of the military operations; at the center is the bronze statue, “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.” An orientation table overlooking the beach depicts the landings in Normandy. Facing west at the memorial, one sees in the foreground the reflecting pool; beyond is the burial area with a circular chapel and, at the far end, granite statues representing the United States and France.