For nearly four years, the swastika had flown belligerently over the small town of Sainte Mere Eglise in Normandy. Suddenly, shortly after midnight on the night of 5/6th June 1944, parachutists from the 82nd Airborne Division began landing in and around the town.
By 04.30, after a tough fire fight, troopers from the 505th PIR had raised another flag over the town – the Stars and Stripes – and Sainte Mere Eglise had become the first town in Normandy to be liberated by the Allies on D-Day. Sherman tanks landing on nearby Utah Beach with the US VII Corps were soon passing through the newly liberated town on the way to the front.