As darkness fell on D-Day, the extent of the Allied foothold was less than Eisenhower had hoped. Instead of controlling beachheads six miles deep, as the high command had projected, Allied forces were no more than five miles inland anywhere, and their hold in several areas was precarious. In contrast to the relative ease with which Utah Beach had been secured, the landings on Omaha Beach had been extremely costly; the U.S. 1st and 29th Divisions clung to an enclave less than a mile deep. Bodies, wrecked landing craft, and detritus of war littered the area where twenty-five hundred Americans had died.

Carentan, with about four thousand residents, was the most important population center in the American sector of Normandy. Located on the main highway from Caen to Cherbourg, it was a stop on the Paris-Cherbourg train line as well. More immediate, it was the designated place where Lt. Gen. J. Lawton Collins’ VII Corps from Utah Beach was to link up with the V Corps from Omaha Beach. The commander of the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment, Lt. Col. Friedrich A. von der Heydte, had been instructed by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to defend the town to the last man.

By the evening of June 7, Taylor had decided that he must seize St. Côme-du-Mont on the Carentan-Cherbourg road before proceeding against Carentan itself. As long as enemy forces held St. Côme-du-Mont they could threaten the advance from Utah Beach, while capture of the village would eliminate this threat and remove the last important point of resistance north of the Douve.

Taylor ordered the 506th’s Colonel Robert F. Sink, one of his most aggressive regimental commanders, to attack St. Côme-du-Mont on the morning of June 8. Sink gathered nearly four battalions from various units and attacked at daybreak. The morning saw sharp fighting and repeated German counterattacks. By early afternoon, however, the village was in U.S. hands and the surviving Germans had retreated across the Douve. Taylor told Collins that the river had been secured.All right, the VII Corps commander replied, Now take Carentan.

Bradley and Collins were eager to maintain some momentum to compensate for the slow buildup on the beaches. The Allied enclaves remained vulnerable, especially to armor, and might have been in serious jeopardy had Adolf Hitler committed his panzer reserves and released the Fifteenth Army from around Calais, where it served as a hedge against a second Allied landing. Fortunately for the Allies, the Germans were showing the effects of incessant air attacks during the buildup to D-Day. So uncertain was the prospect of division-level reinforcement that local commanders were compelled to feed small units into gaps in the line.

That same day, Taylor met with his senior commanders and outlined a plan for attacking Carentan from three sides. The 327th was to cross the Douve near Brevands and clear the area north of the town, while Colonel Sink’s 506th was to move to the west around Carentan and seize a rise known as Hill 30. Meanwhile, the 502nd would advance south along the main highway.

If Taylor had any favorite among his four regiments it was the hard-fighting 506th, with whom he had spent much of D-Day. He also had confidence in the 502nd, even though it had a new commanding officer. Colonel George Moseley, its colorful commander, had broken his leg in landing and was being trundled about in a wheelbarrow when Taylor found him. Taylor ordered the colonel to an aid station and turned over command of the 502nd to Colonel Mike Michaelis.

The advance on Carentan was begun by the 502nd on the morning of June 10. Progress was slow because of German resistance and continuing problems posed by flooded marshlands. Later that morning, the 327th crossed the Douve but soon bogged down. Taylor had harbored reservations about its commander for several days; he now sacked him after a mishandled attack. Calling for Colonel Joseph H.Bud Harper, who had been acting as a beachmaster, Taylor gave him command of the glider infantry and briefed him on his role in the move against Carentan. The forty-two-year-old Harper, who had been an agriculture major at the University of Delaware, would lead the glider infantry regiment for the remainder of the war.

The toughest fighting may have been along the exposed St. Côme-du-Mont-Carentan highway, also known as the Carentan Causeway but later referred to by U.S. paratroopers as Purple Heart Lane. The two-lane road ran straight as an arrow, and the surrounding flooded marshlands made off-road movement difficult.

On the afternoon of June 10, Colonel Cole’s 502nd battalion began a cautious advance along the highway toward Carentan. Resistance was stiff, and even included an attack by enemy dive bombers. Cole’s battalion was nearing the town when it came under heavy fire from a nearby farmhouse. Shortly after first light on the eleventh, after ordering smoke from the artillery, Cole led his three companies in one of the few bayonet charges of the war.

At first only about sixty paratroopers followed Cole and his executive officer, Major John Stopka. Then more soldiers sprinted out of the ditches, and the attack gained momentum. The Americans overran the farmhouse and kept going, grenading and bayoneting enemy soldiers in rifle pits and behind hedgerows. Cole, who survived Normandy only to die in Holland, became the first Screaming Eagle to earn the Medal of Honor.

Even as Cole led his charge, the 327th advanced against Carentan from the northeast, moving through a wooded area adjoining a canal. Three companies crossed the canal on the morning of June 11, but were able to advance only a few hundred yards before being halted by heavy fire. That evening, however, the advance resumed. Sink’s 506th pressed toward Hill 30 southeast of Carentan, and Taylor moved Johnson’s 501st from a defensive position north of the Douve and threw it into the attack.By this time fighting had reached the outskirts of Carentan and the town was taking a beating. It was under fire not only from the airborne’s artillery but also from massive naval guns offshore and from tank destroyers up from Omaha Beach. In the early hours of June 12, Sink captured Hill 30 and sent a battalion into Carentan itself. The other attackers made their way into the town within hours.

The airborne pincers had achieved their objective, but the Germans slipped away. Colonel von der Heydte pulled out of Carentan on the night of June 11 and set up a new defense line to the southwest. The German commander would be sharply criticized for his withdrawal because the 17th Panzer Division was even then moving to reinforce Carentan, but the Germans were almost out of ammunition, and withdrawal may have been the only prudent course.

Taylor himself was in Carentan on the morning of June 12, eager to continue the attack. But the advance south was sluggish, reflecting the weariness of troops who had been in almost continuous action for six days. In any case, an immediate threat from the enemy ruled out any further advance. At dawn on June 13, tanks from the 17th Panzer appeared and drove the 506th and 501st back to the outskirts of Carentan. Because airborne divisions had few antitank weapons, the situation was serious. Taylor would recall that he might have had considerable difficulty had not General Bradley, unsolicited, sent us the reinforcement of a combat command of the 2nd Armored Division. Bradley was in fact quite concerned for the 101st, because he had Ultra intelligence — decoded German radio messages — indicating that a panzer attack was imminent. Bradley later recalled, This was one of the few times in the war when I unreservedly believed Ultra and reacted to it tactically.

By midmorning on June 13 an element of the 2nd Armored was in Carentan, and Taylor was conferring with the task force commander, Brig. Gen. Maurice Rose. That afternoon, Sherman tanks equipped with bulldozer blades turned south, with paratroopers deployed on each side. The tanks crashed through hedgerows, driving the German panzers back several miles. The next afternoon, soldiers from Sink’s 506th were running routine patrols in Carentan.

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