Carentan 1944 : Connecting the D-Day Beachheads

An in-depth look at the US'' desperate battle to secure Carentan and support the Normandy invasion and the elite German units that sought to repel them.

Although the US Army had successfully secured both Utah and Omaha Beach on D-Day, the next tactical problem was to connect the two beachheads. Utah and Omaha were separated by the Vire River estuary. Carentan was the first major town on the river, and as such was of vital tactical importance. However, this was not lost on the Germans, who dispatched their elite Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 6 to hold the town. On the US side, the task of capturing Carentan fell to the 101st Airborne Division, and in the week following D-Day, US and German troops waged a battle for Carentan.

Here, expert historian Steven J. Zaloga goes in depth into the initial battle on June 10–12 , 1944, the German counterattack and the final Allied victory. With stunning artwork, detailed maps and BEVs, firsthand accounts, and period images, this study brings to life the fierce fighting between paratrooper forces and highlights how this Allied success led onto the next phase of Operation Overlord.