A few days after the Normandy landings, on June 10, 1944, there was a bloody confrontation in the town of Carentán.
This French town was an important crossroads for the American forces that had landed on Omaha and Utah beaches, in Normandy. If the Germans took Carentán, their reinforcements would endanger the Normandy beachhead and the invasion might have failed. For this reason, paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division and troops from the 2nd Armored Division of the US Army fought hard combat for this town against two German regiments, one of paratroopers and one of infantry.
One of the units that fought on the American side was Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, attached to the 101st Airborne Division. As you will remember, the history of that Company was told in the excellent series "Band of Brothers" (2001) , based largely on the memoirs of Major Richard Winters, one of the protagonists of the series. Precisely yesterday I saw the episode of Carentán once again, and today coincidentally the channel The History Underground has published a video showing how the scenes of that bloody battle are today, which resulted in the death of 400 American soldiers and more than 800 German soldiers:
Here we can see some screenshots of the video. This is where the American paratroopers of the 101st Division encountered German self-propelled guns.
The road occupied by the German self-propelled guns, which the American paratroopers had to deal with with light weapons and bazookas.
A farm that served as an American command post. On the wall you can still see the impacts of German cannon shots.
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