Figure 1.--Here we see a group of American 101st American paratroopers stand at the village fountain in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. A woman is walking away with two pitchers while three children are watching the scene, and an old man is fetching water next to a paratrooper prepating to wash his mess kit. The village was located at the first major road intersection inland from Utah Beach and thus was one of the main D-Day objectives for the 101st Airborne Division. This village was the first large settlement on the main road to Carentan for the forces landing on Utah Beach. Because of the scattered night drop, Sainte Marie du Mont was not finally secured until the afternoon of D-Day. The fighting in the town on D-Day was mostly between American and German paratroopers aquirmishing for position until heavier reinforcements arrived. German paratroopers after the costly Crete camapign had been covrted into elite infantry. Possession of the village by the Americans denied to the Germans the best observation point for their artillery that they had had down to Utah Beach. American reinforcements coming from the beach arrived first, thanks to the American paratrooper units which blocked the Germans from moving toward the Utah lodgemnent during the critical first days.

The Battle of Carentan was a key battle fought during the D-Day landings in Normandy, primarily by American paratroopers and seveal German formations. The paratroopers were ordered to take Carentan a few days after the landings began. The ballle was fought at Carentan because it was ob the highway needed by the Americans to join the Utah and Omaha lodgenents (June 10-15, 1944). It also commanded the main highway to Cherborg. Carentan w located siuth of Sainte-Mère-Église about 6 miles inland from Utah Beach. A primary objective of the 4th Infantry Division was to join up with the forces landing on Omaha. Utah was dangerously isolated from the other beaches by the Douve River and the marshy lowlands of the Douve Valley. The American partroopers took Sainte-Mère-Église to the north on D-Day, but the Germans held Carentan and the forces there were ordered to hold it because of its strategic location until reinforcemebts could reach them. Holding Carentan meant that the Germans could prevent the merging of the Allied lodgments. It also protected Lessay-Périers to the west that the American needed to isolate the Cotentin Peninsula and Cherbourg. The Germans gathered a composite forcce around the 6th Parachute Regiment, including two Ost battalions and remnants of other German forces retreating from the Utah beach defense forces. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel ordered von der Heydte to defend the town 'to the last man.' Units of the 101st Airborn forced passage across the Causeway crossing the marshy ground into Carentan (June 10-11). [Pisani] The americans drove the Germans out of Carentan as the Germans ran out of amunition (June 12). The 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division was ordered to reinforce Carentan. It was delayed by transport shortages and attacks by Allied aircraft. And without tanks it was not a decisive force. They attacked the paratroopers (June 13). The Germans were on the verge of securing Carentan when the Sherman tanks of U.S. 2nd Armored Division (Combat Command A -- CCA) reached the paatroopers. They were supported by self-propelled howitzers.

Sources

Disani, Arve Robert. The Carentan Causeway: Normandy 1944.

Created: 9:21 AM 6/13/2019
Last updated: 12:06 PM 6/13/2019