https://www.armytimes.com/news/your...-town-remembers-the-high-price-paid-on-d-day/ In this May 6, 2019, photo, a group of photos are on display at a tribute center for the Bedford Boys in Bedford, Va. The 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy has a solemn significance for Bedford, who lost 20 local men. (Steve Helber/AP) https://www.armytimes.com/news/your...-town-remembers-the-high-price-paid-on-d-day/
A compelling D Day story to me has always been that of 82nd Airborne Private John Steele. They jumped into France the night before the landings, but his and another planeload of paratroopers accidentally jumped into the middle of the town of St. Mere Eglise, which was fully awake and lit up because a stray bomb started a fire not long before the jump. The town was occupied and the Germans were allowing residents to fight the fire under guard when Steele's men landed. It was a slaughter, but Steele survived because his chute became entangled in the church steeple. He hung there, playing dead, with the bells ringing not feet from his ears, and watched the whole incident unfold. He was captured hours later, but survived the war and died of cancer in 1969. The town remembers his story to this day, memorialized by a mannequin hanging by a chute from the steeple.
This, This, THIS! https://www.nola.com/news/2019/06/97-year-old-d-day-veteran-parachutes-into-normandy.html
