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 had been necessary to cut the peninsula in two, thus trapping the remnants of the German 77th and 91st Divisions. This job had been 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 the June 27th, the three Divisions had linked up 

and prized the town from the hands 

of the stubborn German defenders.

Fort du Roule

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 among US forces had been high.

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. 

View from Fort du Roule over Cherbourg

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

Two medal of honors 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 27^th, D-Day + 21, 20,000 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.

Angoville au Plain cont . . .

Following up on Memorialized in Glass, here is a photo of Carl Beck with one of the brave medics, Robert Wright, who cared for Americans, Germans and locals in the Angoville au Plain church. In an interview on You Tube (posted by the Central Florida WWII Museum), Wright talks about collecting arms from every soldier, and not allowing anyone to use the bell tower as a look out. Likely for these reasons, the Germans left the church alone. Wright does say they received some friendly fire, however.

This is the area near where Carl Beck, 101st Airborne, should have landed. But, like many airmen on D-Day, he was dropped in the wrong place, and had to rely on a French family to help hide him while he waited for others to come into the area. Carl has returned to visit this family a number of times over the years.

In our last post, we talked about Mark "Sparky" Patterson's stained glass window memorials. One is here at this church, and another is being planned for a church near the La Fiere bridge. Anyone wishing to donate to this stained glass memorial project, please contact Mark at pathfinder.tours at yahoo dot com. 

D-Day + 14

Following D-Day, American forces became locked in a war of attrition with the desperate Germans, who, after being dazed by the initial Allied invasion, were becoming more organized every day.

Bocage is extraordinarily thick, and difficult to penetrate.

Bocage patchwork from the air. Notice how
lanes between rows are not visible.

Apart from the ferocious opposition, GIs were being bogged down in the Normandy hedgerow country, which is known locally as ‘The Bocage’. These high medieval hedges, bordering sunken lanes, were a defender’s delight and a death trap for the attacking forces.

Sunken lane between hedge row

Within the bocage, Germans were able to conceal their deadly MG42 machine gun nests in positions of interlocking fire, which covered the patchwork of the meadows between the hedgerows.

Germans with hidden 88

Allied Armor struggled to penetrate these fortifications and fell prey to attack from panzerfausts and the deadly 88mm German artillery pieces.

Dead livestock and the bodies of fallen soldiers from both sides, littered the fields and conditions became miserable.

All Allied hopes of a swift cross country dash were evaporating as the Germans made the liberators pay for every inch of ground.

Ellwood discusses the notorious German 88mm artillery piece

 

Between the 18^th and the 21^st of June, a massive storm raged in the English Channel. The storm destroyed the Mulberry harbors off Omaha Beach, which had been hastily assembled and not anchored correctly to the sea bed. These artificial harbors had enabled a steady but limited supply of ammunition and equipment to reach the hapless young GIs.

Mulberry harbor destruction.

The rapid capture of a deep water port took on an added importance!
Click here for additional posts on the Battle of Normandy.

Support from an Old Warrior

Screaming Eagle, Jim "Pee Wee" Martin, landed in France on D-Day, and then fought through Holland to the Battle of the Bulge. In The Americans in the Bulge, Jim describes, in chilling detail, the ordeals soldiers faced during that winter campaign. He says, "I thought I would never be warm again."

Safely home now in Dayton, Ohio, Jim enjoys watching documentaries on public television. He and his wife have supported their local station for thirty years, and he encourages us to do the same.

Clifford Maughan

Just after 1:30 am on D-Day - June 6th, 1944, Private First Class Clifford Maughan stepped out of a flying aircraft and landed in what is now Ellwood von Seibold's back garden. Of course, at that time the house was occupied by a German, who took Maughan captive. During his D-Day Battle tours, Ellwood tells participants the story of Clifford's capture and the surprising aftermath.

For years, Ellwood looked for a relative of Maughan. He finally found his sister, but was never able to locate his son. Then, last month, Donald Maughan contacted Ellwood. He was coming to Normandy, and had arranged a tour through Rick Steves. As luck would have it, the tour was with Ellwood. The two arranged to keep Donald's father's identity secret from the rest of the tour group, until they reached Ellwood's home.

Standing in the back garden, Ellwood began the tale of Clifford Maughan. He told how he landed that D-Day night and was captured. He talked about what happened afterward - a story not even Donald had heard.


Then, he told the group how he had been looking for Clifford's son, without success, until he received that fated phone call a few weeks before . . . .

Donald Maughan with Ellwood, by the plaque honoring his father

You can just imagine the applause and the emotion when everyone realized  that Clifford Maughan's son was standing in the very garden where his father stood, on D-Day, 67 years before. Ellwood described the day as, "simply amazing."

They made their way to the C-47 Cafe, where Donald signed the C-47 tail piece for his father, joining the many other veterans who have placed their signatures there.

 

Ellwood is the tour guide for the American Road to Victory film series. He resides in Ste. Marie Eglise.

Memorialized in Glass

Interior, from Alter area, of Angoville au Plain church

 We went to visit Angoville au Plain church the other day. This church served as a field hospital during the Battle of Normandy. In fact, you can still see blood stains on the pews. 

blood stained pew

 The church was in a hot spot, an area that changed hands three times. It survived the conflict because two American medics (Robert E Wright and Kenneth J Moore of the 101st Airborne) treated both German and Allied soldiers here.  When the Germans realized the medics were treating their men, they refrained from bombing the church. One shell entered the ceiling, but, for the most part, the church was "off limits."

mortar hole, ceiling

Exterior view of window

Mark "Sparky" Patterson

While we were there, we ran into Mark "Sparky" Patterson, a battlefield tour guide from Arizona, who commissioned a stained glass window (left) honoring WWII paratroopers and the medics. Mark has a detailed description of the project here. 



He is working on a new project honoring the 82nd Airborne, for the church at Cauquigny, near La Fiere bridge, and we are excited to see it become a reality. Anyone wishing to donate to this stained glass memorial project, please contact Mark at pathfinder.tours at yahoo dot com. 

new project design

It's quite interesting to see recent history memorialized in stained glass. Another window that combines religious symbols with military stories is in Ste. Marie Eglise, and shows paratroopers landing around the church (below). We'd love to hear about more windows or other creative, lasting tributes that we can feature on future blog posts.