The church water pump
On the night of 5th to 6th June 1944 , a villa was burning in the Haule park, where the Airborne Museum now stands.
Fire-fighters tried in vain to control the fire. The alarm bell sounded, calling the people to help. Soon, men and women, dressed in haste, formed a chain and passed buckets of water from hand to hand from the old pump on the market square. The curfew had been lifted and about fifty German soldiers were helping.
Abrubtly machine guns went into action in the village. Above the people’s heads, planes appeared, wing to wing. They flew so low that people instinctively ducked. Suddenly, paratroopers jumped out of the planes and quickly descended to the ground. From that moment, people stopped working the pump and watched the scene develop above them. The Germans opened fire. All around, paratroopers were landing, one of them crashed into the flames.
As they landed, the paratroopers could see men with burnished helmets bustling about the square. Some paratroopers, mistaking them for Germans, wanted to kill them, others pointed out that they were unarmed. Finally, no one fired and the brave fire-fighters of Sainte-Mère -Eglise returned to their station, unaware that their shiny helmets had earned them a rapid council of war.
A few minutes later, near the sawmill, south of the town, a huge transport plane crashed to the ground and caught fire. A second fire started in Sainte-Mère-Eglise.