Talk:John Steele (paratrooper)

Untitled
All of this is a repeat of Battle of Normandy events. The only exception is the very small paragraph about John's parachute getting caught in the steeple of the village church and him pretending to be dead for 2 hours. I think this can be merged with the main Battle of Normandy article. Manufracture 18:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
 * You can't merge an article on one man into an article on a battle involving 500,000 people. This article can be edited, but if Steele isn't notable enough for his own article, I don't think he needs to be mentioned in the Battle of Normandy article, either.Michael Dorosh 18:42, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I've done an edit on the article to remove extraneous info - Steele merits his own article but the info is not appropriate to the Battle of Normandy article. I've also added the film portrayal stuff.Michael Dorosh 18:48, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Looks good, now it needs some catagories. Manufracture 18:56, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Should include years of birth and death... AnonMoos 20:20, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

New entry
Johnny Steele (Steeley) was a childhood friend of my father from Metropolis, IL. I have a postcard from John Steele from Normandy in June 1964. A previous postcard said he could not attend my wedding because he had been asked by St. Mere Eglise to be part of the 20th Anniversary of D-Day celebrations. That postcard is lost. However, this postcard (dated June 12, 1964) was sent just before my June 20 wedding while he was in St. Mere Eglise. The card reads:

Miss Susan Compton Box [unreadable] VA. TECH. STATION BLACKSBURG, VA 24051 USA

Won't be long now (all underlined) Am having a great time. My blessings to you and Joe. Hello to all in Oak Ridge. Steeley

I had checked this page to see if he had any children I could send it to. I have now found a relative of John Steele and the postcard will go to her.

The only hint of history here is that the lost postcard indicated that John Steele was recognized by St Mere Eglise to be the paratrooper on the church steeple. This postcard just confirms his attendance.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Powyccommodore (talk • contribs) 18:02, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Alternative Paratrooper
Didn't another 82nd Division paratrooper claim to have been caught up in the steeple of the St. Mere Eglise church? I can remember seeing a documentary a few years ago and was supprised when a totally different person claimed to have been the one who got caught up.--86.21.136.74 (talk) 19:24, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Deafened by bells?
Ryan's book reported that Steele said he hadn't noticed the bells. I will edit the article accordingly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.53.195.38 (talk) 15:06, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Timeline of capture and escape
This article is heavily self-contradictory.

In the opening paragraph, the article asserts that Sainte-Mère-Église was the first town captured by the US army, on the 6th on June. that i believe is beyond doubt so it should be a baseline.

Then, the article says that john was captured during the landing, some 2 hours after it started, so around 3 AM.

Then it asserts he escaped four days later, when the town was attacked when troops of the 505th PIR attacked the village. That is clearly impossible. i assume the author meant 4 hours, so i edited it, but i don't have a source for that.

I also corrected an error where it said 2 sticks of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 82nd airborne landed on the village. the 82nd was a division, and was comprised of regiments, not battalions, of which the 505th was the one landing at the town. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C5:FE01:7501:FD6C:C40F:3B53:54CA (talk) 13:34, 7 April 2020 (UTC)