Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Aw Shucks!

This photo shows the airborne soldier who had his parachute snagged on the steeple of the church at St Mere Eglise. Just prior to D-Day the 82nd Airborne Division parachuted in and took up blocking positions on avenues of approach into the beaches. I think Red Buttons played the part of the paratrooper in The Longest Day. Anyway, I imagine him saying “Aw Shucks!” when he found himself in that dangerous predicament and only survived by playing dead. Today a dummy swings from the steeple as a reminder of this famous incident.

We stayed three days at a hotel outside St Mere Eglise. While there we toured Omaha and Utah beaches and the museums and explored some of the old German bunkers that are still nestled in the sand dunes.

Back in 1952 we visited the famous invasion site and had our picture taken at the very monument shown in the picture on the right. Judy, my sister-in-law, sent me some old black and white photos taken over fifty years ago. When I figure out how to have them scanned and loaded into my computer I will append them to the two shown here.

We ate most of our meals at the Hotel restaurant and the food was good. We had a waiter who was a real cut-up and kept us entertained throughout the meals. In the morning we had a great “petite de jejune” which consisted of a buffet like spread with every kind of breakfast food you could imagine.

We decided to see the beaches on day one, the gun emplacements at Point de Hawk the second and finally the cemetery on day three. It didn’t work out exactly that way but close enough.