This small town has become famous because of an American called John Steele. Steele was a paratrooper of the 505th PIR of the 82nd Airborne Division and shortly after 0130 hours on the morning of 6 June he, and some 13000 other airborne soldiers, jumped out of over 880 transport planes flying over Normandy.

Steele fell onto the church steeple in Ste Mère Eglise, slid down it and then with his parachute caught on a flying buttress hung there for all to see.

On the evening of 5 June a large house opposite the church caught fire. The mayor and the villagers formed a long line from the village pump, passing buckets of water from hand to hand to throw upon the flames. At this time paratroopers began to fall like confetti amongst them. At least one fell in the burning house.

At 0430 the town was liberated, the first town in France to be so. The task of taking the town had been that of the 3rd battalion of the 505th PIR commanded by lieutenant Colonel Krause

In the church are now two stained windows commemorating the US paratroopers. On the church is still a dummy of John Steele. In the town are several monuments. You can still see the pump, which the villagers used to stop the fire. There is also a Comité du debarquement monument and a monument for the mayor, Alexandre Renaud. In the town hall, you'll find the flag which was raised above the city. It was the same flag which flew over Napels in 1943.

Around the town are a lot of monuments to. Like the US cemetery Marker number one and two, the 508th PIR monument at the bridge over the Mederet, the Pratt Memorial for the first allied general who died in France.