[1] It runs roughly north-south down the middle of the Cotentin peninsula from Valognes to the junction with the Douve at Beuzeville la Bastille.

The Merderet was assigned to the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division as Mission Boston, scheduled for 5 hours before the amphibious landings on D-Day.

Cloud cover and German fire caused the landings to be dispersed; the paratroopers took the strategic town of Sainte-Mère-Église but failed in their original mission to clear the west bank of the Merderet on D-Day and blow the bridge over the Douze at Pont l'Abbé (now Étienville).

These included an attack over the causeway at La Fiere by the 1057th Grenadier Regiment and light tanks of the 100th Panzer Replacement Battalion.

This appears to have been the inspiration for the climactic battle in the film Saving Private Ryan, which is set around a bridge over the Merderet in the fictional town of Ramelle.