This large farmhouse with attached barns and buildings on the outskirts of Ravenoville is perhaps one of the most famous Normandy WW2 locations, but also one which few people will ever visit.
Standing around 3km inland of the Utah Beach area and 6km from Sainte Mere Eglise – the town liberated by US Paratroopers on D-Day – this farm was captured and reinforced mainly by the 502nd and 506th regiments along with ‘lost’ paratroopers from other regiments led by Major John Stopka of the 502nd.
It was a 90 minute battle to take the farm where around a dozen German soldiers from the 919 Grenadier Regiment were captured.
This former German command post became a rendezvous point for mis-dropped paratroopers who were later joined and relieved by elements of the 4th Infantry Division who landed on Utah.
Marmion Farm was one of the first places those ‘back home’ got to witness the success of the landings as it was the location of several now legendary photographs and newsreels.
Perhaps the most famous being that of Private James Flanagan and fellow paratroopers showing off a capture Nazi flag in front of one of Marmion’s barns, taken on June 6 by a photographer who had landed on Utah Beach.
After the war the farm continued agricultural operations and in recent decades it was run by two brothers, one of which sadly passed away, and the farm was locked up and became abandoned as it stands today. Permission is required to visit.