Carentan () is a small rural town near the north-eastern base of the French Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy in north-western France, with a population of about 6,000. It is a former commune in the Manche department. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Carentan-les-Marais. The town was a strategic early goal of the World War II landings as capturing the town was necessary to link the lodgements at Utah and Omaha beaches which were divided by the Douve river estuary (nearby fields were flooded by the Germans up to the town's outskirts). The town was also needed as an intermediate staging position for the capture of the cities of Cherbourg and Octeville, with the critically important port facilities in Cherbourg. History Carentan is close to the sites of the medieval Battle of Formigny of the Hundred Years' War. The town is also likely the site of the historical references to the ancient Gallic port (documented by Roman sources) as Crociatonum a possession of the Unelli (or Veneli or also Venelli) tribe (Greek: Οὐένελοι) as it is situated on the river Douve slightly inland from the beaches at Normandy—geographically, such gentle terrain as is nearby down the river valley is excellent for boat building World War II 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. Although the landings were scattered, they nevertheless secured most of the routes by which the U.S. VII Corps would advance from Utah Beach, the right (west) flank of the Allied forces separated from the landings at Omaha and the other beachheads by the river Douve. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach shortly after dawn with few casualties, and began staging for a move against the fortified port of Cherbourg, a port critical to future Allied operations. In the immediate aftermath of the landings, the priority for the Allies at Utah Beach was to link up with the Allied landings further east. This job was tasked to the 101st Airborne, who had landed in the area and had been conducting raids against inland targets, such as artillery emplacements, and securing and cutting off the area from German reinforcements. 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