Pallud, Jean Paul The Battle of Cherbourg

First Allied Victory in Normandy. Then and now

In planning the Allied invasion of France, SHAEF planners considered from the outset the crucial importance of securing deep-water ports to ensure the supply of an army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Cherbourg, at the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula, was closest to the landing beaches designated for Operation Overlord. Therefore, planners decided to land troops at the base on the peninsula to facilitate the rapid capture of Cherbourg and broaden the landing front. The U.S. First Army was ordered to capture the city as quickly as possible. In the early morning hours of June 6, paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed inland from Utah Beach to seize beach access points and secure the crossings over the Douve River at Carentan. On June 10, the 101st Airborne Division captured Carentan, establishing a link to the Omaha beachhead and providing the Allies with a continuous front line. This success enabled the VII Corps to advance westward and isolate the Cotentin Peninsula. On June 18, the 9th Infantry Division reached the peninsula's west coast, and within 24 hours, the 4th, 9th, and 79th Infantry Divisions advanced northward. Within two days, they were within range of Cherbourg, but the German commander, Lieutenant General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, refused the demand to surrender and began blowing up the harbor. On June 22, the VII Corps launched a general assault. Resistance was initially strong, but the Americans gradually drove the German defenders back from their bunkers and firing positions. On June 25, Allied warships and cruisers bombarded the positions, and on June 26, the 79th Division captured Fort du Roule, which controlled Cherbourg and its defenses. General von Schlieben capitulated that same day, and on June 27, the port and arsenal surrendered. Commander Witt, the port commander, fled by boat to Fort de l'Ouest, a bastion on the breakwater, and assumed command of the small force holding this fort and Fort du Centre. After two days of artillery bombardment and several bombing raids, the two fortresses capitulated on June 29. The Battle of Cherbourg was over. In the Battle of Cotentin and Cherbourg, the VII Corps had suffered over 22,000 casualties, while the Germans had 39,000 prisoners and an unknown number of dead. The early capture of Cherbourg was a heavy defeat for the Germans. In their plan to deny the Allies access to French ports, the German High Command had anticipated that Cherbourg could hold out for several weeks (as Brest did shortly afterward). The fortress surrendered much earlier than expected, and Hitler's inner circle considered the fortress commander, General von Schlieben, a very poor commander. His engineers, however, had extensively blown up the harbor. It was so thoroughly destroyed and mined that it was not fully usable again until mid-August. This is the story of the capture of Cherbourg, the first Allied victory in Normandy, told through over one hundred before-and-after comparison photographs that bring the story to life.