Within the overall strategic planning of the acclaimed operation "Overlord", the code name for the Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy, the French village of Sainte-Mère-Église played a key role. On battle plan maps it was rightly identified as an important road junction that the defending Germans could have used to carry out rapid counter attacks directed towards the Utah and Omaha beachheads.

It was therefore strategically important to attack and quickly occupy the village with American airborne troops to support the landings. In the early hours of June 6, 1944, paratroopers of the famous 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions secured the small French town following a period of intense fighting. The contribution made by the American Para troops has been widely recognised and celebrated in numerous movies from "The Longest Day" made in the 1960s, to the most recent "war movies".