Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Omaha Steve

(98,872 posts)
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 07:45 PM Jun 2014

June 24, 1944 The Americans advance into Cherbourg


http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002




Soldiers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, France, June 16, 1944 Robert Capa.


In January 1944 Montgomery had insisted that the invasion front be broadened to include Omaha and Utah beaches. Part of his reasoning was the need for the Allies to seize the Cotentin peninsula and the port of Cherbourg early in the campaign. He had been unconvinced that the Mulberry harbours would be sufficient to supply the Allies with the munition build up that he believed they would need. Now with the engineers still struggling to bring the Mulberries back into operation after the storm, Cherbourg seemed more important than ever.

Hitler had ordered that the Cherbourg garrison fight to the death. But they were a disparate group of forces, poorly supplied and now cut off from the rest of German forces in Normandy.




Alan Moorehead was present as the US troops entered the town on the 24th:

It was an uplifting moment. We could see the buildings fringing the water’s edge, the warehouses along the dicks, and beyond this, in the calm sea, the outer concrete breakwaters of the harbour. All the green land between us and the sea – about a mile – was swarming with Germans. They brought us to a sudden halt on the road by firing almost point-blank out of a stone farmhouse. On the right they kept up a running fight through the undergrowth with machine-guns.

And on the left, just as I was watching with my glasses, a thicket of trees suddenly opened up with great trailing balls of fire coming towards us. These were the German rockets. As their phosphorus burned away the air was filled with a breath-taking noise, a sort of whirling and tearing, and a second later the farmyard below us disappeared in walls of dust and smoke. About the same time half an acre of ground half a mile away appeared to rear itself slowly and lazily in the air until it formed an immense mushroom of smoke and the noise of the explosion came rushing across the field at us.

FULL story and more photos at link.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»June 24, 1944 The America...