Affixed on the right wall pillar at the entrance to the coffee shop.

Plaque

A rectangular black plaque written in English with the 82^nd Airborne Division, 505^th PIR, and a Paratrooper Insignias. The plaque is dedicated to PFC Clifford A. Maughan and serves as a historical marker of significant events from the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Maughan, a member of Company F, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, parachuted into the town during the pre-dawn hours of D-Day. 

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed between midnight and 2 a.m. near the little town of Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy, France. Many men, especially those of the 82nd Airborne's 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, landed directly in the town itself. They had flown across the English Channel in C-47 aircraft and jumped from an altitude of just 600 feet, leaving little time to maneuver on the way down. The mission was to seize the town and cut off resupply or escape routes that might be needed by German units defending the beaches of Normandy, where large numbers of Allied forces were to arrive toward dawn that day. The town had been the target of an aerial attack, during which a stray incendiary bomb had set fire to a house east of the town square. The church bell was rung to alert the town to the emergency, and townspeople turned out in large numbers to form a bucket brigade supervised by members of the German garrison. 

PFC Maughan landed directly in the garden of a house where a German soldier was staying. Initially, Maughan was captured by the German. However, as the day progressed and U.S. forces gained the upper hand in the battle to liberate the town, the German soldier ultimately surrendered to Maughan. The plaque also commemorates the other members of Maughan's platoon, specifically those in the mortar squad of Company F. These soldiers, alongside Maughan, contributed to the successful liberation of the town, which was vital in disrupting German defenses and enabling the further Allied advance across France.

Source of information: passingthru.com, n.wikipedia.org

Source of photo: www.google.com/maps

Clifford A. Maughan P.F.C.

F.Co., 505 PIR, 82nd Airborne

Born 1920 - Died 1990

This plaque is to commemorate

P.F.C. Clifford Maughan

who parachuted into the garden of this

house at approximately 01.45 hours

on the morning of 6th June 1944

He was taken prisoner by a German soldier

billeted in this house, who then in turn

surrendered to him. P.F.C. Maughan went

on to fight in Normandy, Holland and to

survive the war.

This is also to perpetuate the memory of

all the other men of the 2nd Platoon,

Mortar Squad of F. Company 505 PIR,

whose heroic actions that night helped

to change the course of history.

Truly their Longest Day