Sainte-Mère-Église was liberated on June 6, 1944, by airborne troops of the 82nd Division. A museum is dedicated to the paratroopers who jumped into the area before the invasion. A paratrooper dummy also hangs on the church, commemorating paratrooper John Steele, who got caught with his parachute on the tower. He was shot at by the Germans and survived by feigning death. To make the dummy clearly visible to tourists, it was decided to hang it on the side. However, the real paratrooper was at the front.

The Airborne Museum is a French museum dedicated to the memory of paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions of the United States Army who parachuted into Normandy on the night of June 5–6, 1944.  The museum holds more than 10,000 items, including the CG-4 glider and the C-47 Skytrain, there is equipment used by generals James Gavin, Matthew Ridgway, J. Lawton Collins and John Steele's military decorations. The items on exhibit from World War II were used by paratroopers who jumped into Sainte-Mère-Église during the Battle of Normandy. The museum contains mostly American equipment, but there are some replicas of German military equipment from the period. There are at least a hundred uniformed dummies used to model uniforms and equipment of the period.

https://airborne-museum.org