Talk:Sainte-Mère-Église

Paratrooper Steele
It's mentioned in the article that John Steele feigned death and was rescued when the town was took over by allied forces. However, in the John Steele (Paratrooper) article mentions that after being hanging for two hours he was captured by the Germans, and later managed to escape and rejoin his battalion. Which one is the right version? Some clarification needed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.109.120.156 (talk) 19:51, 27 May 2009 (UTC) Regarding the question about the circumstances surrounding John Steele's situation: I've just returned from Sainte-Mere-Eglise and this is what I recall from the tour guide's comments: She indicated that Mr. Steele had been shot in the foot and passed out from his injuries and was unconscious for a period of time dangling from the church spire. He awoke to the site of the Germans shooting the paratroopers as they descended and feigned death. She indicated that the germans spotted movement from him and cut him down. Later that morning another group of paratroopers encountered a local Frenchman who in spite of the language barrier was able to communicate the locations of the Germans in the village who had retired along with the local inhabitants after fighting the house fire which caused the pilots to issue the early "green light" for the paratroopers. They were able to rescue John Steele and liberate the village later that morning. This again is second hand from our local French tour guide. Dkrotine (talk) 19:17, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Trooper Steele
I don't remember Steele being captured in 'The Longest Day'. I thought he feigned death (although actually only deaf)and was on hand to advise John Wayne et al. when they arrived the next day. I may be misremembering (it's been a while), but if not the text here is misleading. Badgerpatrol 02:41, 20 December 2005 (UTC)


 * There's a John Steele (Paratrooper) page... AnonMoos 21:33, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Coat of Arms
According to The Complete Book of Heraldry by Stephen Slater (2002), page 96, the coat of arms of the town shows two white stars parachuting down on either side of a church labelled with the letters "AM" (and with a yellow lion on red at the bottom). It's not convenient for me to scan the page in (and it very likely wouldn't be available for free use if I did scan it), but some representation of the coat of arms would make a nice addition to this page... AnonMoos 21:33, 20 January 2007 (UTC)


 * There's a small pic at http://flagspot.net/flags/fr-50-sm.html, but the colors are somewhat different to what is shown in the book, and it's less detailed... AnonMoos 21:42, 20 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Added coat of arms image Image:Blason Sainte-Mère-Eglise 50-solid.svg... AnonMoos 20:40, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

2014
What on earth is that heraldic description? googlefrench? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.69.196.117 (talk) 19:36, 25 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Look at blazon... AnonMoos (talk) 17:48, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Paratrooper John Steele, Memorial
DOES ANYONE KNOW THE ARTIST who created the memorial? It sounds trivial but its so exciting...I wish this page had 'that' kind of depth! ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.156.32 (talk) 22:42, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Some buildings in town were on fire that night
The article says "Some buildings in town were on fire that night", but doesn't say why. Is it known why? It could be the allied boming before the landings (which wasn't super accurate), caused by spent German AA shells falling (which I believe sometimes did start fires), or just an ordinary fire with no military cause. It's a bit of an odd thing for us to say, without our explaining the cause. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 17:07, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

D-Day mention in lede
I'm confused why you don't want D-Day mentioned in the lede. Isn't the lede supposed to summarize the contents of the article? p b  p  18:46, 18 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Hi - It's not that I don't think it should be mentioned there, but the way you dropped it in as the second sentence, I thought maybe you hadn't noticed the section below. In any case, if we think a mention belongs in the lede, I would maybe place it at the end, and give it a little more context, maybe something along the lines of Given the town's location as an important crossroads near Utah Beach, taking it was a key  objective of Operation Overlord on D-Day. Eric talk 19:40, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

"The current French form of the name is ambiguous"
Sainte-Mère-Église unambiguously means 'Holy Mother Church". Is there some reason for claiming that it's "additional", ambiguous? On the face of it, it appears to be a case of reinterpretation over time of the much earlier name. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 23:12, 5 June 2024 (UTC)


 * I've just cleaned it up a bit. Discussion here -- especially additional empirical facts -- very welcome. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 20:22, 6 June 2024 (UTC)