Hadrian's Wall Path by Jane V. Blanchard

Turn up something about my father’s story. While in Ste Mère Eglise we were looking through books that might Let me just tell you that it is quite a story. Greater detail and discovered so much more about that night…too Russell cut his parachute linesĪnd escaped and Steele was captured later. Trooper hanging on the other end of the church, Pvt.

Ray in the stomach, and then turned to shoot both Steele, and another To the church and a German soldier came around the corner and shot The town hangs a parachute and simulated paratrooper from the steepleĮach year in his honor. John Steele, he ended up hanging from the church steeple. His plane, only four lived through the night. He didĬut off a good portion of his thumb when he cut the chute lines. Miraculously, he didn’t get hurt or break his legs. The ground and got away, all the time carrying 85 pounds ofĮquipment. Well, and he managed to cut his parachute cords and drop 25 feet to The same time, Blankenship was killed immediately by machine gun fireĬoming from the church steeple. I knew that when he parachuted in Ste MèreĮglise he had landed in a tree, but the story was much more complex I left on our five-and-a-half-month journey, but never realized what Medals, the Silver Star, Bronze Star and a host of other medals. He was the recipient of three Purple Heart He would have been 100 years old this year, but So much about him and the battles he was involved in that I just had Additionally, he was transportedīy truck to fight in the Battle of the Bulge at La Gleize, Belgium. North Africa, and then parachuted into Sicily, Italy, Normandy,įrance and then Nijmegen, Holland.

Unbeknownst to me, he has a story that needs to be told. The 82 nd Airborne Paratrooper Division in World War II. I’ve decided to put it on the back burner because something much more Working on a book about our hike of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Finally, it came down to a coin toss and I Jane was anxious to return home and wanted to fly, I Quicker than planned and we found we had a few weeks to kill before

Our original intention was to leave fromĬopenhagen, Denmark, by ship, on October first. Late August, it seems like a lifetime ago.Īnd since the last posting we were in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, So much has happened since my last posting in

Hadrian's Wall Path by Jane V. Blanchard