Whilst i was looking at the flikr site that Paul Reed sent me i had a look at the photostream on it (which is brilliant by the way) i came across a picture of a statue of a paratrooper hanging from the top of the church steeple and i am curios about the story of it cheers Michael
did you click the link to the wiki page & read up on him? or try this... 505th Regimental Combat Team (505rct.org)
John Steele played dead when his parachute harness was caught up on the St Mere Eglise church roof.He was able to see the events unroll beneath him.He had a number of shots into his feet when Germans continually had spot shots at him,fortunately into his feet and he survived the war. St Mere Eglise used to have "John Steele" still hanging up on the church roof each year when they commemorated D Day.John Steele died some years ago but recorded that he had permanent deafness caused by the continual ringing of the church bells.
It's a nice way of keeping history alive and letting people know what happened in and around this town. Here's a pic from when I was in Normandy 2007:
The "fake" John Steele actually hands, purposefully, on the wrong side of the Church. He actually landed on the opposite side, above the small side road that runs along the side of the church. Ken Russell, from the same plane, also landed on the lower portion of the church and became entangled. Shots were fired at Steele and he was wounded, but not seriously and survived by playing dead. Ken Russell and John Steele effectively owed their lives to a man called John Ray who landed on the village square just below where Steele and Russell were caught, he was also in the same plane. He was shot in the abdomen by a German sentry as he landed, and was fatally wounded, but had enough energy in him to fire a single fatal round against the German as he began to take aim at Steele and Russell. This is the closest any German got in terms of shooting distance and its believed that had he been able to let off rounds he could easily have killed the two helpless troopers. Every year on the Anniversary of photo of John Ray is placed on that spot that he was killed saving his two comrades. The reason Steele is hanging from the opposite side is simply to aid visibility to people coming into the town, on the other side it wouldnt be seen. Regards, Adam
Here is a picture of Sgt.John Ray http://www.ww2-airborne.us/units/505/505images/troopers/f/sgt_john_p_ray_jr_505f.jpg F.Company, 505th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division.
Here it is in micro-armour scale, but you'll have to add your own JS http://www.lasermodellbau.de/index.php?view=image&format=raw&type=img&id=192&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=2&lang=en