I am very proud to call him my 8th grand uncle and a true American Patriot. Thank you for your service.

I graduated from Morgantown High in 1970, and remember this well. His death shook the school. I didn't know him, but knew of his sacrifice. I married a Vietnam Veteran--a proud Marine--and there is a special place in my heart for those who served, and for those who didn't come back. Thank you Thomas Bennett for your sacrifice. Thank you for this documentary honoring his legacy.

My 5th great grand -uncle.

When I see these, I always wonder if it was my dad that helped them learn how to fly. He was a fligjt instructor in WWII for the Army Air Corps. He never talked about his time in the military. He flew combat in North Africa for the Royal Canadian Air Force before the U.S. got in the war.

I'm sorry I have to disagree. I believe his most well-known novel. Is the web and the rock

Hats off

Great video. Having visited Bastogne and the Museum there, this video brings it home.

My great grandfather ❤

Wonderful video - thank you for remember our patriots!!

A true Brother in Arms, neighbor and fellow Ruritan. We made a lot of apple butter and barbecued chicken! He did more with one hand, than most with two. Fair winds my friend.

Great video. Many thanks for doing it. Just a note, the still image (6m 32s) of the man running to the church is a flipped image. The hedge was actually on the right of the church as you look at it. When I was researching St-Mere-Eglise for a modelling project this image had me confused for a while till I worked out it was a flipped negative.

Before COVID Capt Dale Dye was in the early stages of production of a feature film about this battle. Unknown about its status now

Ogni volta mi emoziono

Great video!! Thx !!

Thank you John, just the research I was looking for

Great video thx !!

I am related to this man, I don’t know what to say… I uh, don’t know how I feel about it

I first learned of this from Dan Carlin, what saddness. We shall not see their likes again.

Every American, at some point in their life, should visit Normandy, including the American cemetery above Omaha Beach. They can combine it with a nice trip to Paris and the many beautiful places in that city.

Hommage à tous ces héros.....les phrases sont impuissantes quand nous connaissons les souffrances et l'immense sacrifice de ces jeunes...

I met John Steele who was a friend of my fathers at an 82nd reunion in Atlantic City in the mid-1960s . My Dad also jumped into St. Mere Eglise with E Co 505 of the 82nd Airborne under my namesake: General James M Gavin. As I sit here writing this I look down under my computer screen at General Gavin's brass field cup given to me from the General after my birth in 1955. There was never a prouder bunch of men, then those that my father served with during those amazing days and nights.

Thanks for this excellent summary, John! I've yet to visit Sainte Mere Elise but am planning to next year. My father jumped with the 2/505 of the 82nd on D-Day. In his division book he wrote that the 2/505 arrived in the city last, but arrived.

It is Robert G. Cole, not Roger

Great video Thank you.

My dad jumped in that night his third of four combat jumps made during the war. He was in the 505th. He was hit in the face with shrapnel on the way down, his shoot hooked on a building in the alley next to the aid station. He broke some fingers as he hit the building. He had to cut himself down and fell a short distance to the ground. He met up with another trooper and they crawled around a wall to the side of the aid station. As they got to the back the glider ( one shown in your video) crashed about a hundred feet or so from the back of the building. They managed to crawl out to the glider and met up with another trooper. The pilots were dead but there were a number of badly wounded men. Making several trips back and forth they managed to pull the wounded to safety and retrieve equipment and supplies while under heavy small arms and mortar fire. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his actions. I have a copy of the commendation he received and a photo of the three men taken a few days later. He like so many had an amazing story from Africa to Berlin. God bless those who served and those who serve now. Airborne all the way .

"When the legend becomes fact, always print the legend!" 'Aw Nuts!' clearly verified by 🎗Lt. Gen. Harry W.O Kennard Ret. was 🎗 Brg. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe's second response after he read the nazis surrender request. Tony first "whispered" BS to his close friend, unofficial body guard and post war pen pal 🎗Sgt. Willie MaClean. I think I was picked by him to relate his seldom told story to me at sunrise in the mid 80's. After chatting over coffee he went straight to showing me his perfectly preserved B & W photo of him in battle fatigues with their Screaming Eagle patch while holding his Thompson .45 cal across his waist. Willie said, "I was in the Battle of the Bulge!" and then he asked me, "What did the General say to the surrender demand from the Germans?" I quickly said, "Nuts!" With a half smile he leaned over our local pool rooms table and whispered that "explicative" to me inside a local uptown business very accustomed to cursing. Willie said, "On that day the 101st was very aware of the POWs shot at Malmedy." He then noted, "Those words could not be used in the National Press back home or the US Army news' ''Stars and Stripes". Lastly he told me, "Nobody ever believes me when I tell that to them!" and he had a quizzical look on his face with that claim. That morning I will never forget his "other reports" on surviving the cold, snowy days and nights in the terrible Battle of the Bulge inside Bastogne with his close friend, 🎗Tony.

Excellent video. Very informative. Thanks

Bravo les cineast😮❤❤❤❤😊

Excellent...I'd like to use it on my recent LiDAR scan of the Monument as intro...

He was supposed to land on Utah Beach but was dropped off erroneously. He famously stated, " we'll start the war from here". He also was given the Medal of Honor. Your coverage lacks a lot.

This town was grateful that the Allied Soldiers liberated it. Also when "The Longest Day" was on tv when I was a child,our dad watched it with us and explained what he saw after it was liberated. So glad that me and my brothers got this explanation from someone who went through the town. Daddy said that it was mess but the folks there were grateful that we had helped the Allies to run our the Nazis.

Thanks for posting this. Robert Cole was my uncle. It amazes me to hear the voice of a relative who died before I was born. His Texas accent is stronger than my mother’s and my uncle’s. Most of the stories I’ve heard were of him as a kid; I’m impressed with the man he became.

Love and appreciate your work John. I pray to GOD that there are more PATRIOTIC, MORAL SOUND EDUCATED AMERICAN CITIZENS LIKE YOU. Than you John.

your explanation and description of the Nazi military in Sainte-Mere-Eglise seems a little watered down and pansy according to my father. According to my Dad the Nazi no matter where the conscripts came from were Nazi period, and he said his tommy gun couldn't kill them fast enough. My Dad 82nd Airborne jumped there and was wounded twice during WW2.

Music was too loud. Could hardly hear you over it most of the time.

These were my great great uncles and when I learned that when I was 8 (I’m 12 now) I’ve been interested in WW2 And the Bedford boys

Wasn't the story about hanging from the church tower in a parachute debunked long ago as a tall war story?

I'm sorry the narrator didn't take French from a Parisienne.

My dad was with 82 airborne, ,jumped into st mere eglise. I was born in Texas 4 th of June.

Great video. Thank you.

My Marine did not die in the Vietnam war, but that war killed him at age 58 - PTSD, Agent Orange....

🙌🙌🙌🙌

Thank you brother for informing me about this heavy duty battle.

My 4th great-grandfather

COURAGE ❤🪂🙏

COURAGE ❤🪂🙏

A BIGTHANK YOU JOHN, for doing a short version of the Gordon/Barlow story without all the tag on material it has collected over the years. There is a New York Times article of Gordon and Barlow meeting again on Barlow's Knoll on July 1, 1888, the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The following morning, Barlow and Gordon met on the site of the first day’s battle. According to The New York Times: ‘The two men met for the second time in 25 years and the meeting was rather affecting. Gen. Barlow was left on the field on the first day’s fight. He was found by Gen. Gordon, who not only saw that he was taken care of, but allowed Mrs. Barlow to come through the lines to nurse her husband.’ The Times account of the generals’ personal reunion at Gettysburg provides more evidence supporting the veracity of their wartime encounter. Furthermore, the story’s appearance in a major New York daily gave Barlow a superb opportunity to dismiss it as bogus. He did not. PS: The KKK accreditation all started with the phrase, "was generally acknowledged to be the titular leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia during the late 1860s ." Note the word, "titular" which few people care to look up the meaning of the word and many others remove that word when quoting changing it to read; " was generally acknowledged to be the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia during the late 1860s. A completely new statement altogether. The first time Gordon gave his speech, Last Days of the Confederacy, ( which included the Barlow/Gordon story) was at the Tabernacle of Brooklyn. Barlow, now a prominent political figure himself lived; New York. Gordon was invited back to do his speech a week or so later at Carnegie Hall.

Yes,you got it right. He wasn't the commander,just acting. The US troops were green replacements. The Ardennes was regarded as a rest,refit training area. Those units had been through the Hurtgen Forrest campaign in the fall.

been there a number of times perhaps spoiled a little as a French town but who can blame them great informative video thanks for the upload.

My great uncle Louis DiGirolamo was 505th I company. KIA at Fosse, Belgium Jan 3, 1945. His brother Tommy was 11th Airborne, 221st Medical Company, KIA Feb 7, 1945 Luzon, Philippines. RIP.