Carentan

Lore & Background

Carentan is close to the site of the medieval Battle of Formigny, fought in 1450 during the Hundred Years' War. The town is also likely the site of the historical references to the ancient Gallic port of Crociatonum, a possession of the Unelli tribe situated on the river Douve slightly inland from the beaches at Normandy. The gently sloping terrain in the nearby river valley was excellent for boat construction.

Reader's Guide

In the early hours of June 6, 1944, the U.S. 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne divisions landed at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula. By June 9, the 101st Airborne had reorganized sufficiently from the haphazard scattering of its units. It managed to cross the flooded Douve using a few causeways across the flooded fields. The next day Carentan fell to the 101st in the Battle of Carentan. Beginning with a dawn assault, it was an all-day, hard-fought, house-to-house battle against German troops embedded in strongly prepared positions. The capture of the town gave the Allies a continuous front joining Omaha to Utah Beach and the other three lodgments to the east of Omaha. US forces maintained possession of the town despite a German armor-reinforced counterattack on June 13 just to the southwest of town known as the Battle of Bloody Gulch. On 15 June, engineers of the Ninth Air Force IX Engineering Command began construction on a combat advanced landing ground for fighter aircraft south of the town. Declared operational on 25 June, the airfield was designated, 'A-10'. It was used by P-47 Thunderbolts of the 50th Fighter Group until mid-August, then as a support airfield for supplies and evacuation of wounded personnel until its closure in November. Today, a small private airfield is located on part of the wartime facility.

Did You Know?

• The '101st Airborne March' was composed by Daniel Bourdelès for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Carentan in 1994, not for the original liberation in June 1944.
• Carentan has sister cities: Selby, United Kingdom; Waldfischbach-Burgalben, Germany; and Hopkinsville, Kentucky, United States (since 2019).