Photos of Sainte-Mere-Eglise during the Battle of Normandy

Quick answer: Why is Sainte-Mere-Eglise important to D-Day history?

Sainte-Mere-Eglise, on the main road behind Utah Beach, was captured by the 82nd Airborne Division's 505th Parachute Infantry in the early hours of June 6, 1944, among the first towns in France liberated by American troops.

This is a short photo essay from the town the 505th Parachute Infantry took in the first hours of D-Day. John captions images from the weeks of fighting and their aftermath. One shows a German assault gun knocked out on the N13 at the town's north exit on June 7, destroyed by Private John Atchley of H Company, 505th, with a 57mm anti-tank gun he had never fired before. He received the Distinguished Service Cross. Another shows a paratrooper running for the church door as German shells land. There is a jeep packed with at least nine paratroopers, an elderly Norman beside an 82nd Airborne military policeman on June 20, and a French girl laying a flower on an American grave. At the temporary cemetery on the Chef-du-Pont road, Simone Renaud, wife of Mayor Alexandre Renaud, tends the grave of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. of the 4th Infantry Division. The final images show what remained of a crashed C-47, paratroopers' bodies gathered by a Graves Registration unit, and an aerial view of the town's main street lined with American vehicles.

Why it matters for leaders: Photographs keep the human scale of a battle in view, which is easy to lose in maps and statistics.

Q: Who tended Theodore Roosevelt Jr.'s grave?

A: Simone Renaud, wife of Sainte-Mere-Eglise's mayor Alexandre Renaud, cared for American graves in the town's temporary cemeteries.

Q: What did Pvt. John Atchley do?

A: On June 7, 1944, he destroyed a German assault gun on the N13 with a 57mm anti-tank gun, earning the Distinguished Service Cross.

Read the full article on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/photos-sainte-m%C3%A8re-%C3%A9glise-during-battle-normandy-john-fenzel

By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation