The village of Sainte-Mère-Église lies near the northern coast of France. Their picturesque church is hundreds of years old. Look closely at the image above, and you'll see something strange on the side of the bell tower. That's a mannequin, affixed to the outside of the church, to commemorate the D-Day invasion. See, Sainte-Mère-Église was the first town liberated by the Allies.
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces converged on the beaches of Normandy, while paratroopers dropped a bit further inland. Private John Steele was one of those paratroopers, an American in the 82nd Airborne Division. His unit's mission was to capture bridges near Sainte-Mère-Église, but German forces were attacking, so they deployed early. That put them directly over the town instead of in the fields surrounding it. German occupiers shot paratroopers as they descended, and Steele was shot in the foot. It was quite a while before he reached the ground, though, as his parachute became entangled on a sculpture on the church building. Steele was a sitting duck in that position, so he did the only thing he could- he played dead, for hours, before the Germans came to retrieve his presumably dead body. Read the story of John Steele and the church at Sainte-Mère-Église at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: Elliesram13)