After D-Day, the Germans were starting to re-group. They rushed elite divisions into the battle. In the 101st Airborne sector around Carentan, the 6th Regiment under von der Heydte, who had forced the American paratroopers to fight for every inch of ground, were reinforced by the 17th SS. |
| Troopers of the 101st Airborne liberate Carentan |
In the night of the 12th and the early hours of the 13th of June 1944, this combined force tried to re-take Carentan, which was strategically important to both sides. The U.S. forces needed the town as a link up point between forces which had landed on Utah and Omaha beaches, and the Germans desperately needed to drive a wedge between the landing beaches. They attacked at the battle of ‘Bloody Gulch,’ one mile southwest of Carentan. The troopers of the 101st Abn. came under a sustained and vicious attack by an enemy force with mobile assault guns. At a critical point in the battle, just as the German force showed signs of breaking through the American lines, sixty tanks from the 2nd Armored Division supported by infantry of 29th Inf. Div, arrived on the scene and beat off the German attack. The battle was decisive, and from that moment on U.S forces had secured a lodgement area from which they could launch future operations.
This action was immortalized in the HBO series 'Band of Brothers.'
 |
| Germans attack towards Carentan, June 13th 1944 |
