D-Day museum and the Battle of Normandy

Dead Man’s Corner Museum

Sainte Côme du Mont 1944

One of my favorite museums in Normandy dedicated to all things Airborne, this is the place to get your Airborne fix!

Normandy, France, 6 June 1944.
It’s only just 00:15 minutes past midnight when the American paratroopers
of the 101st Airborne Division of General Maxwell D. Taylor parachute over Normandy,
thus becoming the first soldiers to reach the French territory;
their main mission is to capture Carentan.
This town is defended by the elite of the German troops,
the paratroopers of Major von der Heydte,
the “Green Devils” of the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment.

The Germans are entrenched in Saint-Côme-du-Mont, the last bastion before Carentan.
They have the order to defend the town until their last man dies.
It is crucial for the Americans to capture Carentan as quick as possible.
They are waiting for the support of the light tanks of the 70th Battalion that landed on Utah Beach.
The road from the beach is the only way they can go.

It comes from the beach, passes through Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
and ends half way on the road Carentan/Saint-Côme-du-Mont,
at a crossroads named – since then –  « Dead Man’s Corner” by the Americans.

A sole house stands at this crossroads;
it is used by the German paratroopers as headquarters, then as aid post.
The Dead Man’s Corner Museum is located in this very building,
in the highly historical place of Saint-Côme-du-Mont.

The house of the Dead Man’s Corner has been acquired by
the Carentan Historical Center and turned into a museum.
During the first development phase of the D-Day Paratroopers Historical Center
it has gathered within this historical building an impressive and authentic collection of material used
by the American and German paratroopers, related to this legendary site.

Cole's Memorial in Carentan

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