Normandy Victory Museum, musée dans le département de la Manche
The Normandy Victory Museum is a history museum in Carentan-les-Marais built on a former airfield that American fighter planes used during World War Two. The exhibits hold over 15,000 objects including weapons, uniforms, vehicles, and personal items, plus 27 life-sized scenes showing daily life and combat from that time.
The museum opened in 2017 on the site of the former A10 Airfield, where American fighter squadrons including P-47 Thunderbolts operated in summer 1944. After the war, the region transformed from a battleground into a rebuilt town, with the museum recording this change.
The museum sits in Carentan, a town heavily fought over during the war whose marks remain visible today. The displays show how soldiers and townspeople lived then and what role different groups like women and resistance members played.
The museum offers a mobile app guide in six languages and walk-through life-sized scenes that make it easy to explore the exhibits at your own pace. You will also find a shop with about a thousand objects and two nearby places to eat when you need a break.
The museum offers visitors a ride in a vintage military vehicle around the grounds to see the landscape as it looked during the war. There is also an interactive adventure where you solve a puzzle about three old bunkers and experience the history in a playful way.
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