Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ va la uɡ]) is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.

[11] Excavations, led by Gérard Fosse (1948-2019), revealed human occupation dating from the Mousterian period on the site of the Fort of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.

[17] The medieval parish, fiefdom of Fécamp Abbey, is under the patronage of Saint Vaast, who never came to Normandy; it was in French Flanders that he exercised his priesthood, as bishop of Arras.

[13] It was probably during the construction in the 11th century of the first church, the current Sailors' Chapel, that the monks of Fécamp Abbey chose Saint Vaast as their patron.

[19] In 1340, during the Battle of Sluys, many of La Hougue's carracks were sunk: the Saint-Jehan, the Saint-Jame, the Nostre-Dame, the Saint-Esperit, the Jehannète, the Pélerine, the Mignolète, and the Sainte-Marie.

[14] As part of the Hundred Years' War, Edward III of England in 1346 launched a series of raids throughout northern France known as the Crécy campaign.

On 3 June 1692 during a heated battle with the Anglo-Dutch fleet, twelve French ships were sunk in the vicinity of the island of Tatihou, just off the coast of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.

Following the French defeat, two fortified towers were built from 1694 onwards on the mound at La Hougue and Tatihou Island by a student of Vauban, Benjamin de Combes, in order to defend the bay.

Fortification work continued until the 19th century, when the port of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue was developed by the civil engineer Charles-Félix Morice de la Rue (1800-1880).

[13] Shortly after the Normandy landings with the Allied troops rapidly advancing the Germans left Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue on 18 June 1944 by setting fire to the barracks of Tatihou Island and destroyed the lines of the PTT telephone exchange.