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The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
  • The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale

The Church at Sainte Mère Église - Diorama | 1:35 Scale
$299.99 USD
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🔒 BATTALION EXCLUSIVE — DIRECT LINK ONLY — LIMITED INITIAL RELEASE

June 6, 1944. 0130 hours. The sky above Sainte-Mère-Église was on fire.

The pathfinders had dropped incendiary markers. A building in the town square was burning. French civilians formed a bucket brigade under German guard while the garrison watched the sky. And then the sky filled with parachutes.

The men of the 82nd Airborne Division were coming down directly into the town — into the firelight, into the gunfire, into the worst possible drop zone a paratrooper could imagine. German soldiers opened fire on men who were still in their harnesses. Some landed on rooftops. Some landed in the town square. Some landed in trees.

Private John Steele landed on the steeple of the church.

His parachute snagged on the spire of the Église Notre-Dame de Sainte-Mère-Église, and Steele hung there — suspended above the battle, unable to cut himself free, playing dead while the fighting raged below him. German and American soldiers killed each other in the streets and the churchyard while Steele dangled from the steeple, listening to it all.

He was eventually cut down and taken prisoner. He later escaped and rejoined American lines. The town was liberated by the 82nd Airborne by dawn — the first town in France to be liberated on D-Day.

Today, the church at Sainte-Mère-Église still has a paratrooper mannequin hanging from the steeple in Steele's honor. It's one of the most photographed sites in Normandy. If you've been there, you've stood in the square and looked up. If you haven't, you've seen it in The Longest Day.

Now you can build it.

What you're building:

  • 2,287 pieces in 1:35 scale — this is a full diorama, not just a vehicle
  • 18 inches tall. 12.5 inches wide. The church dominates any shelf it sits on.
  • 10 figures included:
    • 5 German soldiers — the garrison defending the town
    • 4 American paratroopers — the 82nd Airborne dropping into the fight
    • 1 French civilian — because the people of Sainte-Mère-Église were in the middle of it all
  • John Steele with parachute — hanging from the church steeple exactly as it happened
  • 1 German half-track — armored presence in the town square
  • The church itself — the spire, the facade, the churchyard, the scene of one of the most iconic moments in the history of the Second World War

🎖️ BATTALION EXCLUSIVE PRICING — LIMITED INITIAL RELEASE

Retail: $299.99

YOUR PRICE: $249.99

$50 off. Direct link only. Limited initial production run. This is the most ambitious build in the BrixKrieg catalog — and The Battalion gets it first.