paratroopers – Laurie Apgar Chandler

The Saturday morning outdoor market around the corner from our hotel

We loved the heart-shaped Neufchâtel cheese, recommended by a woman with me in line. We also bought Calvados, strawberries and a yellow pepper, but passed up the live chickens and quail.

Our rental vehicle has given us the freedom to stop and explore along the way. Here, we got out to watch a line of planes pass overhead, wondering if there was a paratrooper drop about to happen.

After returning home last evening, we sat in the courtyard outside our room, with the sun warming us at last. In the quiet, Lance began to talk about the day. He felt a new lightness of heart and spirit, even the sense that a physical weight had been lifted from his shoulders after making the pilgrimage to the La Fière bridge near Sainte-Mère-Église. There, “on one of the most hotly contested pieces of ground in WW2,” the men of the 82nd Airborne proved their valor. That quote, and the title above, come from the famous Iron Mike memorial.

This small stone bridge across the Merderet River was crucial to Allied troop movements inland from Utah Beach. In June 1944, the pastoral countryside was heavily flooded and the men who landed, on target, on the far side of the bridge would defend it at any cost.

This friendly gentleman took our photo, and we took his. His cute little dog rides in the basket!

This relief map shows the manor house and bridge as they stand today. A soldier with a bazooka on the left before the bridge was key to taking out two of the three German Panzer tanks in the first day of the four-day battle. The third was destroyed by the paratroopers on the far side of the bridge. No enemy forces ever succeeded in crossing the river.

At the Iron Mike memorial with a USAF captain who will help drop 1,200 paratroopers at La Fière on June 9 as part of the 80th anniversary commemoration. The planes that morning had been on practice runs for the big event. The paratroopers with their red berets that we’ve been seeing everywhere came over to France on those same planes. Men from Lance’s battalion fought here. The 618th Engineer Company (nicknamed The Nasty), in which he served, is part of the 307th Engineer Battalion, forever memorialized on the base of Iron Mike.

We crossed the bridge as a tractor raked hay in a nearby pasture and a couple of fishermen tossed their lines into the water. By an old stone church, yellow roses bloomed. The sun peeked out once more and all this history seemed so long ago. That church, the Cauquigny Chapel, and its cemetery, however, were the scene of intensive fighting on the far side of the bridge during the same battle.

The chapel in 1944. A stone clock, shattered and forever silenced, hangs today on the front wall of the restored building. On the afternoon of June 6, paratroopers who had dropped on the far side of the river held the chapel until driven away by German tanks. They escaped through the cemetery.

The past and present photos of buildings are everywhere, proof of the massive devastation of war.

This chicken quarter smothered in vegetables was fabulous, paired with a local cider

The best (so far) of the FOUR hamburgers Lance has sampled. I treated my favorite member of the 82nd Airborne to lunch for a change, at Les Ecuries in Sainte-Mère-Église.

This may be the best photograph of the trip

For months, we have dreamed of visiting Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the village most sacred to the legend of the fighting paratrooper. On June 5, in preparation for the D-Day beach landings, paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st divisions landed here, often far from their intended drop zones. A week ahead of the 80th anniversary celebrations, many current and former Airborne troops are gathering here to honor them. Vintage Jeeps and Army motorcycles are scattered around the square.

A reminder of the dangers of war, as well as the moments of mercy

If you know this village, it may well be through the touching story of Private John Steele of the 82nd Airborne. As he drifted toward the village square that fateful night, his parachute caught on the church steeple. There he hung for hours, playing dead, while two armed German soldiers watched from the windows. Realizing the American was alive, they took him prisoner, rather than kill him in that sacred place. Steele soon escaped and survived the war.

Rugged wooden doors and simple stone floors worn from countless steps contrast with the elegance of the pulpit and altar. Here, I lit a candle for the brave men of June 5.

Stained glass window created for the 25th anniversary of D-Day. Note the parachute above.

The Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Eglise follows the Airborne divisions of World War II from their creation through D-Day and beyond. Original war footage, full-scale dioramas, and an amazing collection of original uniforms and equipment, often tied to stories of the soldiers who wore and used them.