Carentan

Carentan
Delegated commune of Carentan-les-Marais
Port
Location of Carentan
Carentan Show map of France Carentan Show map of Normandy
Coordinates: 49°18′N 1°15′W / 49.30°N 1.25°W / 49.30; -1.25
Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Manche
Arrondissement	Saint-Lô
Canton	Carentan
Commune	Carentan-les-Marais
Area 1	15.66 km2 (6.05 sq mi)
Population  (2019)[1]	5,841
• Density	370/km2 (970/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal code	50500
Elevation	0–30 m (0–98 ft) (avg. 6 m or 20 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Carentan (French pronunciation: [kaʁɑ̃'tɑ̃]) 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.^[2] 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.