Place:Sainte-Mère-Église, Manche, France

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NameSainte-Mère-Église
Alt namesSaint-Mère-Eglisesource: Family History Library Catalog
Sainte-Mère-Églisesource: Getty Vocabulary Program
Ste.Mére-Églisesource: Times Atlas of the World (1994) p 170
TypeCommune
Coordinates49.4°N 1.317°W
Located inManche, France
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Sainte-Mère-Église is a commune in the northwestern French department of Manche, in Normandy. On 1 January 2016, the former communes of Beuzeville-au-Plain, Chef-du-Pont, Écoquenéauville and Foucarville were merged into Sainte-Mère-Église. On 1 January 2019, the former communes of Carquebut and Ravenoville were merged into Sainte-Mère-Église.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Founded in the eleventh century, the earliest records (1080–1082) include the name Sancte Marie Ecclesia, Latin for "Church of St. Mary", while a later document written in Norman-French (1317) mentions Saincte Mariglise. The current French form of the name is ambiguous, with the additional meaning, "Holy Mother Church". The town was significantly involved in the Hundred Years' War as well as the Wars of Religion.

The town's main claim to fame is that it played a significant part in the World War II Normandy landings because this village stood right in the middle of route N13, which the Germans would have most likely used on any significant counterattack on the troops landing on Utah and Omaha Beaches. In the early morning of 6 June 1944 mixed units of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and U.S. 101st Airborne Divisions occupied the town in Mission Boston, giving it the claim to be one of the first towns liberated in the invasion.

D-Day battle

The early landings, at about 01:40 directly on the town, resulted in heavy casualties for the paratroopers. Some buildings in town were on fire that night, and they illuminated the sky, making easy targets of the descending men. Some were sucked into the fire. Many hanging from trees and utility poles were shot before they could cut loose.

A well-known incident involved paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), whose parachute caught on a spire of the town church, and could only observe the fighting going on below. He hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead, before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village, capturing thirty Germans and killing another eleven. The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day by actor Red Buttons.


Later that morning, about 05:00, a force led by Lt. Colonel Edward C. Krause of the 505th PIR took the town with little resistance. Apparently the German garrison was confused and had retired for the rest of the night. However, heavy German counterattacks began later in the day and into the next. The lightly armed troops held the town until reinforced by tanks from nearby Utah Beach in the afternoon of 7June.

Krause and Lt. Colonel Benjamin H. Vandervoort both received the Distinguished Service Cross for their actions in the capture of the town. Sgt. George Bowler Tullidge III received the Bronze Star, while a collection of Bible verses and of his letters home, A Paratrooper's Faith was distributed throughout the 82nd Airborne by his parents from after his death until the 1990s. 2nd Lt. Thomas J. Tighe of the 70th Tank Battalion received the Silver Star posthumously for his actions on the morning of June 7 in securing the town, during which he was killed when his tank was hit by German artillery fire.

Henry Langrehr was also involved in the capture of Sainte-Mère-Église. He crashed through a greenhouse roof, as retold in The Longest Day. On 6November 2007, along with five other men he received the Legion of Honor medal from the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Personnes mentionnées dans les actes à cause de leur fonction locale

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Maires

Adjoints au maire

Curés

Instituteurs, maîtres ou recteurs d'école

Médecins, chirurgiens, officiers de santé

Sages-femmes

Patronymes courants

Surnoms

Les surnoms n'ont pas qu'une fonction descriptive ou ironique. Ils permettent d'identifier des individus portant le même prénom et le même patronyme.

External links

Research Tips


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Sainte-Mère-Église. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.