D-Day + 21

By D-Day + 21, U.S forces were still pinned down in the dreaded bocage with their backs to the sea. Following the destruction of the Mulberry harbors mentioned in the last Notebook post, General Omar Bradley had committed a substantial force to the taking of Cherbourg, the only deep water port on the Cotentin peninsula.

Prior to the advance on Cherbourg, it was necessary to cut the peninsula in two, thus trapping the remnants of the German 77th and 91st Divisions. This job was successfully completed by General Manton Eddy's 9th Division, moving West across Normandy, with no small effort from the weary troopers of the 82nd Airborne. Eddy then turned his forces toward Cherbourg.

The 4th and 79th Divisions, under the overall command of General 'Lightning Joe' Collins (architect of the Cherbourg attack), had fought their way up through perilous hedgerow country and were poised to attack from the Eastern coastline.

Reprint of 1947 Michelin Map (insert)

By June 27th, the three Divisions had linked up

and prized the town from the hands of the stubborn German defenders.

Fort du Roule

View from Fort du Roule over Cherbourg

Commander of the German forces in Cherbourg was General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben. He had ringed the town with formidable defenses, so the casualty rate had been high among US forces.

The town of Cherbourg is overlooked by a 19th century fort, Fort du Roule, a tremendous vantage point, which the Germans had turned into a subterranean defensive fortress, towering over the town below.

Anything that moved in a 360 degree radius around the fort was targeted by withering machine gun and artillery fire.

Two medals of honor were awarded during the U.S. action to take this impregnable enemy strongpoint, one to Corporal John Kelly and the other to Lieutenant Carlos Ogden, both of the 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Division.

Hamburg - east of Cherbourg, National Archives photo

The U.S. Navy played a major role in the capture of Cherbourg. The Germans had placed two massive coastal artillery batteries on the outskirts of the town, one at Querqueville and the other, 'Battery Hamburg,' at Cape Levy, both of which could have turned their guns on the forces advancing into the city.

Using a high risk strategy, Bradley ordered Admiral Kirk to bring his destroyers close in shore and take on these two positions. Kirk gave the job to Admiral Deyo and an array of destroyers and cruisers, including the USS Texas and Arkansas, set about dueling with with the German gun crews. The gun crews' range, at 40,000 yards, was twice that of the Americans. After about five hours, the Navy was running out of evasive maneuvers, and their smoke camouflage had cleared. They became sitting ducks and began to take casualties, finally breaking off the engagement and heading out to sea.

Author and Historian, John C. McManus Ph.D, wrote in his remarkable book, The Americans at Normandy

On the heights that overlooked Cherbourg, General Collins stood, watching the whole spectacle. “It was thrilling and….an awe-inspiring sight. I knew definitely that Cherbourg was ours.” The naval fire had not actually knocked out many of the German guns, but it had kept the crews busy, diverting them from dealing with the greatest threat-the enemy behind them. Collins was so grateful for the Navy’s courageous support that he wrote to Admiral Deyo and told him that the bombardment “did much to engage the enemy’s fire while our troops stormed into Cherbourg from the rear."

By the 27th, D-Day + 21, twenty thousand Germans surrendered and the Americans had their deep water port, but Bradley's high risk strategy, which had cost so many lives, did not give him the means of unloading the much needed supplies.

German prisoners, National Archives photo

The Germans had completely destroyed the port and all of the unloading facilities. It would be three months before any cargo would cross it’s wharves, by which time the British had taken Antwerp.