The Battle of Cherbourg
Pen & Sword Books Ltd (Verlag)
978-1-0361-9681-3 (ISBN)
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In the early hours of June 6, paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed inland from Utah Beach to capture the beach exits, and secure the crossings over the Douve River at Carentan. On June 10, the 101st Airborne Division captured Carentan, thus liaising with the Omaha beachhead and ensuring the Allies a continuous front.
This success allowed VII Corps to advance westward to isolate the Cotentin Peninsula. On June 18, the 9th Infantry Division reached the west coast of the peninsula, and within 24 hours, the 4th, 9th, and 79th Infantry Divisions advanced northward.
Within two days, they were within striking distance of Cherbourg, but the German commander, Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, rejected a summons to surrender and began demolitions of the port. The VII Corps launched a general assault on June 22. Resistance was initially strong, but the Americans gradually drove the German defenders from their bunkers and pillboxes. Allied warships and cruisers bombarded the defences on the 25th, and the 79th Division captured Fort du Roule, which dominated Cherbourg and its defences, on the 26th. General von Schlieben surrendered the same day, and the port and arsenal capitulated on the 27th.
Fregattenkapitän Witt, the port commander, escaped by boat to the Fort de l’Ouest, a bastion on the breakwater, and took command of the small forces holding this fort and the Fort du Centre. After two days of artillery hammering and several bombing raids, the two strongholds surrendered on June 29. The Battle of Cherbourg was over.
In the battle for the Cotentin and Cherbourg, VII Corps had suffered over 22,000 casualties, while the Germans had lost 39,000 men taken prisoner, in addition to an unknown number killed.
The early capture of Cherbourg was a major 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 was soon to do). The capitulation of the Festung came much earlier than expected, and Hitler’s inner circle considered the fortress’s commander, General von Schlieben, a very poor commander. However, his engineers had carried out intensive demolition of the port, which was so thoroughly destroyed and mined that it was only put back into very limited use by mid-August.
This, then, is the story of the capture of Cherbourg, the first Allied victory in Normandy, told through more than a hundred ‘Then and Now’ comparison photographs, which really bring history to life. You will thus be able to walk precisely in the footsteps of the heroes of this great moment in history.
JEAN PAUL PALLUD was born in France in 1949 and studied physics at Grenoble University, graduating as a physicist engineer. Specialising in the history of the Second World War, he has worked alongside After the Battle for over 43 years, his first submission to the magazine appearing in 1979, and his last in 2022 in the last issue. As one of the main contributors to the magazine, he ventured behind the then-Iron Curtain, journeyed north of the Northern Circle, and far into the deserts of North Africa. He has written and contributed to over 80 articles on a wide variety of wartime topics and is the author of many of the After the Battle’s most memorable feats. He authored five major books: The Battle of the Bulge Then and Now, Blitzkrieg in the West Then and Now, Rückmarsch Then and Now, Operation ‘Torch’ Then and Now and The Desert War Then and Now. He also co-authored German Coastal Radar Stations Then and Now with Winston Ramsey and has contributed to three more major After the Battle books. He has written over 150 articles and books in French.
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 30.6.2026 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 25 colour illustrations, 200 mono illustrations |
| Verlagsort | Barnsley |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 172 x 246 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-0361-9681-X / 103619681X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-0361-9681-3 / 9781036196813 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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