Seventy years on: Carentan, rue Holgate

Photos taken in 1944 and 2014

I do not of course claim ownership of the 1944 photo. But I know where it was taken from (to within ten metres or so) and exactly which buildings in rue Holgate appear in the that photo.

It is rarely easy to establish exactly where a photo was taken from. It appears to be straightforward until you get to work. Here I was standing in the middle of one of the busiest streets in town, fortunately one on which the traffic travels very slowly. Despite my best endeavours, the perspective in my version does not quite match that of the original. No matter, my predecessor must simply have been using a telephoto lens.

The older photo was taken on the morning of 12th June 1944. The 101st Airborne had finally taken the town, after a ferocious six day battle in which it took heavy casualties. Carentan was important to the invasion forces. It secured the road to Cherbourg, a much needed deep water port, and straddled the railway from Cherbourg to Paris.

Carentan also provided the hinge between the invading armies, more specifically between Utah and Omaha beachheads.


A Carentan lady, whose father was a butcher, told of her experiences during the battle for the town. She was a young girl at the time; unphased by the heavy gunfire, all she wanted to do was to go to school. Her parents knew better, but found it very difficult to hold her back.

As the ferocity of the fighting increased, the town's inhabitants took refuge in the fields outside the town. Her father was very much in demand, butchering the cattle killed by gunfire and then cooking the meat to feed the other refugees.