 |
||||
|
D-Day 6th June 1944 'Badness's' 60th Anniversary Visit - 3rd May 2003. One Year, One Month and Three Days Early |
||||
|
|
The
history of the area of our trip to Normandy is well known to the older
members of the band. Our flying visit took in the D-Day landing
beach of UTAH, the most westerly of the beaches used and the nearest
to Cherbourg where our cross channel ferry, 'The Pride of Bilbao' docked. We
also went to St. Mere Eglise.... read on....
|
|||
|
|
Mike's Watts and Rye on UTAH Beach |
The Americans landing on Utah Beach 6 June 1944 |
||
 |
The Us 1st Airborne dropped their paratroops around the area of UTAH beach and one stick landed on and around the town of St. Mere Eglise. This was the first French village to be liberated on the night of 5/6th June 1944. The Germans entered on the 18th of June 1940 and hoisted the Swastika. This small town has become well known because of the story of one paratrooper, John Steel. Steel, of 505 PIR (Parachute Infantry Regiment) 82 Airborne Division, whose chute was caught on the church spire, hung there for 2 hours with the battle raging on around him. Eventually he was cut down and taken prisoner by the Germans. A monument is still there to him today as you can see by the pictures of the church at the centre of town. There is also the US Airborne Museum opposite the church where the pictures of the Sherman Tank was taken. |
|||
|
||||
