Airborne Museum

Airborne Museum, Freedom from the sky!
A few kilometers from Utah Beach, the Airborne Museum of Sainte-Mère-Eglise is located on the square of the church on which the paratrooper John Steele was left hanging on June 6, 1944.

Through its 5 buildings with modern, interactive and spectacular scenography, the museum guides you in the footsteps of the American paratroopers of D-Day.
You will first discover the context in which the paratroopers intervened, namely the German Occupation, its restrictions and rules, the anxious atmosphere of France at the time, and this through a new permanent exhibition opening in 2024. Then, it is the great leap over the Atlantic: how were the American airborne troops founded, and how did their first combats take place in North Africa and Europe? The opportunity to admire an authentic C-47 plane that dropped soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division over Sainte-Mère-Eglise, and to learn everything about the organization of D-Day.
After passing inside a C-47 plane giving the sensation of jumping to land in the village, the bitter and difficult fighting that took place during the first days and weeks following June 6th comes to life again within the Neptune building. You will have the sensation of getting lost in the Normandy bocage, which slowed down the Allied operations in Normandy and saw tens of thousands of people perish in the name of freedom, during the battle for La Fière and the Battle of the Hedges in particular.

In the new WACO building inaugurated in 2024, you will finally learn everything about this little-known aspect of the airborne operations of the time: glider missions. Through 5 rooms, chronicling their design through to their implementation, with the museum's authentic glider and its new, strikingly realistic scenography as the highlight, you will understand everything about the challenges of these missions and the risks incurred by the soldiers.

The museum's film "Les chemins de la Liberté" (The Paths of Freedom) screened in the large cinema room will emotionally explain the fates of the men who came to Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach as well as the highlights of the air and sea landings.

And to accompany you throughout your visit, the HistoPad tablet will take you back in time. Thanks to its hyper-realistic 3D graphics, planes and museum objects come to life! Experience the jumps of the paratroopers who landed on the church square, witness decisive battles that have marked history and many other surprises... Immersion is guaranteed!