When American paratroopers descended from the sky onto Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, they seemed like a godsend.
To those looking up from the ground in occupied France on the climax of World War II, the Normandy landings, they were saviors.
“To me, when they came ashore, they were like heroes in the movies,” Paul Renaud, who was 14 years old and living in the Normandy town of Sainte-Mère-Eglise on the day of the Normandy invasion, said in an article published years later on a U.S. military website.
Anne Frank’s spirits were high on D-Day. “Friends are coming,” she wrote of the heroic GI troops.
Young Americans crossed the Atlantic to save France from the evils of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
Renaud then helped the grateful people of Normandy to testify to their faith in Biblical salvation through stained-glass art.
Eight decades after the epic Allied invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944, the people of Normandy, France, are still paying tribute to the liberators of the Normandy landings. One such expression of respect is a depiction of paratroopers in a church’s stained-glass windows. (Matt Cardy, Philip Clement/Altera/Universal Images Group, Sean Gallup, all via Getty Images)
Colorful statues of America’s airborne saviors adorn Normandy’s churches in powerful expressions of gratitude.
Tributes to stained glass in churches, in every country, are usually dedicated to celebrating the salvation of Jesus Christ.
“To me, when they landed, they were like heroes in a movie.”
Sainte-Mère-Eglise was the first French town liberated by U.S. paratroopers during the Normandy landings and is the center of 80th anniversary celebrations this week drawing people from around the world.
A statue of an American paratrooper hangs permanently from the steeple of the church in the town square.
A figurine of a World War II paratrooper hangs from the steeple of a church in Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy, France, in memory of Private John Steele, an American soldier whose parachute got caught in the church steeple while descending into France during the Normandy landings. (Giles Clark/Getty Images)
It’s a continuing tribute to Private John Steele, a paratrooper who was shot after his parachute got caught on a church steeple, and somehow managed to survive hanging in that position for many nights.
A stained-glass window inside the church depicts three parachutists in green army uniforms and combat gear descending from the sky.
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If you look closely, you can see a group of airborne Saviors descending around and behind them.
In the background, dozens of parachutes fall to the ground while the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus watch over them from above.
A stained-glass window in the church of Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy, France, pays tribute to the American paratroopers who liberated the town on D-Day, June 6, 1944. (Kelly J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“They’re back.”
According to U.S. military reports, Renault was still in his teens when he sketched out his concept for the window at the end of the war in 1945.
It was made by artisan Gabriel Loire in the village of Chartres.
The human drama surrounding the rescue at Sainte-Mère-Église was immortalised in Irish journalist Cornelius Ryan’s book The Great Grenade.
World War II veterans gathered in downtown Sainte-Mère-Église, northwestern France, as part of D-Day commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 5, 2024. The D-Day ceremony on June 6 this year marks 80 years since the start of Operation Overlord, the large-scale military operation that changed the course of World War II. (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)
His groundbreaking history of the Normandy landings was later adapted into a star-studded Hollywood blockbuster of the same name.
That night, a large building in the town square was hit by a stray bullet and caught fire.
Residents of Sainte-Mère-Eglise formed a bucket brigade to help put out the fire late into the night.
A man takes a photograph of a stained-glass window in a church in Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy. The artwork commemorates the liberation of the town by paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Regiments on June 6, 1944. (Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images)
With them were soldiers from the German garrison that had occupied the town.
At that moment, by the light of the fire, I saw a parachute falling from the sky.
“Some paratroopers were shot dead by the Germans before they even landed.”
D-Day, the first American battle, was underway.
Some of the paratroopers were shot dead by the Germans before they landed, and at least one GI fell into the fire at City Hall and was burned to death.
A memorial to U.S. Army medic and Normandy landing paratrooper Kenneth Moore and Robert Wright in Angoville-au-Plan, Normandy, France, was erected outside a church that soldiers converted into an aid station after British schoolchildren were dropped into France to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, June 6, 2019. (Kelly J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
The paratroopers quickly overwhelmed the Germans and, in the fierce fighting that followed, gave the Americans their first victory.
On June 6, 1969, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Normandy landings, the surviving liberators returned to Sainte-Mère-Église and their heroic story became widely known.
Another stained glass window was installed in the church to commemorate this event.
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One panel reads in English and French: “They are back.”
This work is imbued with deep symbolism, celebrating the return of the Saviours of Sainte-Mère-Église.
In Catholic tradition, the Archangel St. Michael leads God’s armies in a constant battle against evil, and he stands at the center of the 25th anniversary stained glass window.
Stained glass window dedicated to the 101st Airborne Division paratroopers in a church in Angoville-au-Plane, Normandy, France. (Philippe Clement/Altera/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
In this statue, St. Michael is equipped with shield, helmet and sword, ready for battle.
Among other duties, he also escorts the souls of the dead to heaven, including those of American soldiers who could only return to heaven in spirit and memory, to mark the 25th anniversary of the liberation of Sainte-Mère-Église.
“Saint Michael the Archangel, who in Catholic tradition commands the army of God, sits in the center of the window.”
A church in the nearby village of Angoville-au-Plan pays tribute to American paratroopers with two decorative glass panels.
One was installed in the church to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004. The clean, crisp design depicts three paratroopers descending on the town.
A paratrooper carrying the American flag lands during a paratrooper drop on Utah Beach in Normandy, France. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Two of America’s greatest symbols, the bald eagle and the Statue of Liberty, adorn another stained-glass window, with the parachutes of America’s liberators falling around each national symbol.
At the bottom of the window are the names of U.S. Army Medics Kenneth Moore and Robert Wright.
A red cross, the symbol of caregivers on both sides of the war, runs down the length of the window.
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Paratroopers dropped into Normandy on D-Day and transformed a small church at Angoville-au-Plain into a small hospital for the wounded and dying.
Moore and Wright rescued fellow paratroopers and naval infantrymen who had landed on the beach and headed inland late on June 6. The medics also received international acclaim for their efforts in aiding German soldiers.
A stained-glass window in Angoville-au-Plain, Normandy, France, pays tribute to the American paratroopers who descended on the town on D-Day, June 6, 1944, marking the beginning of the liberation of Europe. (Kelly J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
Moore and Wright, American and French heroes, were caught in the crossfire of the Normandy landings and then won the hearts of local residents by nursing wounded civilian girls in the fighting that followed.
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In addition to the stained glass, the church contains other testimonials that tell the story of the horror and heroism of D-Day.
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Some of the church pews are still stained with blood from when it was spilled on the makeshift hospital bed in the film “The Longest Day.”
