few causeways passing through 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 fight 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 lodgements to the east of Omaha. Possession of the town was maintained despite a German armor reinforced counterattack just to the south-west of town on the 13th known as the Battle of Bloody Gulch. On 15 June, engineers of the Ninth Air Force IX Engineering Command began construction of a combat advanced landing ground for fighter aircraft south of the town. Declared operational on 25 June, the airfield was designated as "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 November when it was closed. Today, a small private airfield is located on part of the wartime facility. 101st Airborne March The "101st Airborne March" was composed by Daniel Bourdelès, a Norman composer, for the celebration of the liberation of Carentan, in June 1944. This march created in Carentan is extracted from the CD "Carentan, the sky memory" (1994), produced by the town. It is regularly used as a musical illustration for the Normandy liberation films on France3 regional TV. Heraldry Twinned towns Selby, United Kingdom Waldfischbach-Burgalben, Germany Hopkinsville, Kentucky, United States (since 2019) See also Battle of Carentan Communes of the Manche department Crociatonum Château de Carentan References Former communes of Manche World War II sites in France