John Steele Hung From Steeple

During the early airborne landings on D-Day, American paratrooper John Steele's parachute snagged on a pinnacle of the church tower in Sainte-Mère-Église, leaving him dangling above a square filled with German troops. Wounded in the foot by flak, he hung motionless for two hours and pretended to be dead while fighting continued below. German soldiers eventually took him prisoner, but he escaped four hours later and rejoined his division as American forces attacked the village. Steele received the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart for his combat wound.

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