Sainte-Mère-Église was the first town in occupied France to be liberated by Allied airborne troops on June 6, 1944. During the night of the invasion, American paratrooper John Steele’s parachute got caught on the church steeple and he hung there for two hours, pretending to be dead, before being taken prisoner by German troops (he later escaped). A replica paratrooper figure still hangs from the steeple today in commemoration of the event.