During my tour of the battle sites around Normandy, France, I had the honor of visiting this beautiful 11th century Norman Church, in the village of Angoville.  My tour guide, one of the fine folks of Overlord Tours, told an amazing tale about the church’s WW II history.  During the D-Day invasion, the commanding officer of the 2/501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) sent a Lieutenant, together with two medics, Privates Kenneth Moore and Robert Wright, to set up an aid station in this very church.  For three long days, fighting raged in and around Angoville, with most of the wounded, from both sides, being treated by the two Privates.  Three times, the church changed hands, but the Privates continued treating the wounded.  The first time the Germans recaptured Angoville they stormed the church.  Upon entering and finding American medics treating both Germans and Americans wounded in battle, the German commander ordered that the church and its occupants be left alone.  The Germans never entered the church again.

According to a brochure I found in the church, the church stands today as a “symbol of man’s humanity in the midst of man’s greatest horrors -war.  Eight men and one child found refuge in this church during those tumultuous days, and evidence of their suffering is still present today in the blood stained pews and bullet marks about the church.  After sixty years, the church remains virtually unchanged .”