Editorial: The prize
Cherbourg Peninsula assumes historic importance in this greatest of military enterprises. Allied generals saw that its possession would send the war far forward because it would mean the difference between landing men and armor on the beaches, often in rough seas, and disembarking in the security of a safe harbor.
German estimates, which may or may not be accurate, are that a half million Allied troops have been out ashore in Normandy. The landing of an army of this size, with all necessary supplies and equipment, is a miracle of human endeavor. It must not be forgotten that this task was accomplished with severe losses – losses in men, in shipping, equipment, as the littered beaches and the debris in the wash of the waves prove.
Cherbourg today is a wrecked city and a ruined port. Installations were greatly damaged by Allied attacks from the air, and the Germans completed the work of demolition. Restoration of the port to usability will not be a lengthy job, however, and possession of the city will make possible an uninterrupted flow of supplies from Britain to France as the invasion expands to ever greater proportions.
Cherbourg becomes the first great objective of Allied armies because it was assigned the role of serving as the keystone of the invasion, the source of power for steady, devastating blows which will carry the forces of liberation toward their final objective.