Operation OVERLORD (1944)

274

The New York Times (June 26, 1944)

AMERICANS IN CHERBOURG, FIGHT WAY TO DOCKS
Warship guns aid; smash forts blocking advance of infantry into vital port

Battles in streets; British gain two miles in barrage-led drive from Tilly-sur-Seulles
By Drew Middleton

Transatlantic port being wrested from the enemy

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Cherbourg was entered by U.S. troop columns from three directions. Two of the stubbornest points of resistance were Fort du Roule (1) and Octeville (2). While the Germans still fought at Fort du Roule, our forces hammered their way in from the south and the east. Our dive bombers and warships were called upon to silence the fort on Pelée Island (3) and Fort des Flamands (4). Smoke rising from the arsenal in the naval establishment (5) suggested demolitions there by the Germans.

SHAEF, England –
U.S. infantry drove into the streets of Cherbourg from the east, south and southwest yesterday, and a spokesman at headquarters said last night that the city was “almost in our possession.”

After five days of the hardest fighting of the campaign, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s doughboys were driving the German defenders from house to house and street to street into the interior of the city last evening, and one battalion was only a few hundred yards from the docks.

A United Press correspondent at the front said some troops had even reached the docks and had surprised Germans in the act of blowing up installations.

The forces that entered from the south silenced Fort du Roule, the last German stronghold in that area, yesterday afternoon, to open their way into the city.

However, later reports from the front said that some Germans had crawled back into the fort through tunnels and from intact pillboxes were firing at the Americans from the rear.

Navy shells port defenses

Other forces smashed into the city in the afternoon from the east and southwest after storming German positions on high ground on both sides of the city, while guns of a powerful Allied squadron of battleships and cruisers, commanded by RAdm. Morton L. Deyo, flying his flag in the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa, knocked out German guns on the far side of the harbor that had been harassing our advancing troops.

The entry into Cherbourg, France’s third largest port, was a major victory and all signs of such triumph are in evidence yesterday. Hundreds of dazed German soldiers surrendered as tanks rumbled along the cobbled streets and a white flag fluttered from one battered blockhouse.

Some Germans continued to fight to the last. Snipers moved from house to house, trading shots with oncoming U.S. machine-gunners, and fired their pieces until their last round or until they died by grenade or bayonet. Whole sections of the city were ablaze and a great pall of smoke hung over the port where the Germans had blown up stores and had fired fuel.

So swift was the American advance in the final phase that bombing by the clouds of fighter-bombers that hung over the city had to be restricted because of the danger to U.S. troops. But the bombers had done their job, for when the troops moved forward yesterday morning, German artillery fire was pitiful and inaccurate, and prisoners were already coming in from the most heavily bombed fortifications. One infantry unit swept up 300 in its first advance.

Far to the east of the American sector in Normandy, the British again hammered their way forward, advancing more than two miles southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles on what reports from the field described as an eight-and-a-half-mile front. There was fighting around Fontenay-le-Pesnel, two-and-a-quarter miles southeast of Tilly, and the British smashed one strong German counterattack in the area.

Part of this area will undoubtedly become the main battle sector with the fall of Cherbourg, for it is here that the enemy has concentrated his armor, and it is here that a successful offensive would offer him the greatest rewards. The Germans are worried about the Allied attack here. They say a great fleet of transports has disgorged fresh divisions off the mouth of the Orne River during the past two days and predicted that Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery would open an offensive as soon as he had these troops in line. The Cherbourg fight moved at a tremendous pace yesterday, faster than it had since Gen. Bradley hurled his divisions up the peninsula after they had broken through to the sea around Barneville a week ago. Our troops were looking down into the city from some of the high ground to the south by late Saturday, but Fort du Roule still held out during the night.

Yesterday morning, as the field guns resumed their iron clamor, the Americans drove the Germans out of field positions on the high ground and assaulted Fort du Roule.

The advance from the west progressed over high ground west of Équeurdreville. Here again, a fort was knocked out and the road from Cherbourg west of Beaumont was cut again – it had been cut farther west Friday – and patrols fought their way into the area just west and south of the naval base in the region of the Municipal Stadium on Rue de la Bucaille.

Other units to the southwest met bitter resistance in the area of Sainte-Croix-Hague, but these Germans have probably been outflanked by the advance further north. A few enemy detachments were still reported holding out in the area of Bois du Mont du Roc.

In other areas, prisoners drifted in by twos and threes, and sometimes by the dozen. Some complained of lack of ammunition, others of a terrific hammering by American artillery. The enemy suffered heavy casualties. Along the Cherbourg-Valognes road, the dead were so thick that a path had to be cleared through the bodies so that jeeps could pass to the front.

Two German generals have been killed in Normandy since Friday. On Saturday, the German radio announced the death of Lt. Gen. Richter and that of Gen. Stegman, who was killed in action at Cherbourg.

Here and there across the stricken field, the Germans fought bravely. German troops were defending the airfield at Maupertus, five miles east of the city, with bitter tenacity. German gunners served their weapons in the port area under the accurate fire of Allied battleships and cruisers until the guns were knocked out.

Except for fighting around Maupertus, there was little sign of the enemy in the Barfleur-Saint-Vaast area. Once occupied, Barfleur, a fishing port with long docks, will be useful for the Allies.

While the infantry, supported by tanks, were cracking Cherbourg’s last landward defenses, Allied cruisers and battleships were engaging in a duel with German batteries in the port. One by one, the German batteries “Bromm” and “York” under the command of RAdm. Hennecke, naval commander in Normandy, were knocked out by Allied shells, according to the enemy. Above the forts circled observation planes of the U.S. and British Fleet Air Arm, the British spotting for warships.

An unofficial but reliable estimate received by this correspondent yesterday said that the capture of Cherbourg would complete the destruction of four German divisions – the 91st, the 77th, the 243rd and the 109th, the latter under Lt. Gen. Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, who also commands the whole Cherbourg garrison. Remnants of these four units, plus German paratroopers and marine and naval units in the city, probably will bring the total Allied bag to about 32,000 effectives.

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275

‘Heavies’ hit Nazis in France five blows

8th Air Force bombers attack from Pas-de-Calais to Toulouse – RAF and 15th strike
By David Anderson

South of France now gets attention of Allied fliers

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Behind the Normandy beachhead (shown in black at 1), U.S. and British planes continue to blast airfields and communications, while in the Pas-de-Calais area (2) they kept up their battering of rocket bomb installations. In central France, they attacked enemy plane nests at Bourges and Avord (3). Flying to points not far from the Spanish border, Allied airmen struck at fuel depots and airdromes around Toulouse and Blagnac (4). Meanwhile, Italy-based bombers smashed at railroads and bridges north and west of Marseille (5), on the southern coast.

SHAEF, England –
Flying high over the Normandy battle zone and southward another 400 miles to within 70 miles of the Spanish border, a powerful force of U.S. heavy bombers yesterday attacked a Nazi fuel dump and airdromes in the Toulouse area.

Other Liberators and Flying Fortresses striking from Italy blasted bridges over the Rhône River at Avignon, 170 miles east of Toulouse, and other enemy traffic and oil targets north and west of Marseille.

The 8th Air Force’s Fortresses and Liberators from Britain, also smashing at targets among the Nazis’ flying-bomb installations in Pas-de-Calais, made a third attack in the evening on Luftwaffe fields in northern France and bridges southeast of Paris. The airdromes hit included Villacoublay and Brétigny.

Steady Allied attacks from west and south Sunday night were indicated by Nazi radio reports of planes over Germany and the Danube area.

While these heavy-bomber missions were being carried out, medium and light components of the Allied air forces swarmed across northwestern France in search of German troop movements and on wrecking jobs against specific objectives.

The battle within the Battle of France is being waged relentlessly against the enemy’s pilotless plane installations in Pas-de-Calais.

Thousands of U.S., Canadian and British bombers and fighters continued yesterday their hammering of the well-concealed, strongly built placements buried in woods and scattered among farms in the strip of France back of the coast from Dieppe to Ostend, about 30 miles in depth.

In the twelve hours ended at 3:00 a.m. Sunday, at least 1,000 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force went on duty over the Pas-de-Calais area.

Liberators of the 8th Air Force attacked 12 power stations connected with the robot bases and returned without loss.

The Nazis’ pilotless planes continued smashing homes and killing people in the south of England yesterday, although in a greatly reduced scale compared with last week.

Allied air operations in every form against the Nazis were stepped up yesterday compared with Saturday. Some idea of the scope of these operations will be gathered from Saturday’s activity when 6,000 sorties were flown on 200 missions.

The persistent U.S. and RAF fighter-bomber attacks on enemy communications leading in the direction of Normandy were maintained yesterday with the same intensity that has marked recent operations.

Bridges, fuel, Nazi tanks and rolling stock in the Dreux-Chartres-Mantes area were blasted and shot up. On the railroad between Chartres and Mantes, west of Paris, the tracks were severed in four places and direct hits were scored on a tunnel.

An outstanding success was achieved by a group of U.S. fighter-bombers that attacked chokepoints on the railway linking Paris and Orléans, a 75-mile stretch of electrified line carrying heavy traffic. It runs through a series of deep and narrow cuttings. Seven of these cuttings were bombed, the rails ripped up and the banks sent tumbling onto the roadbeds.

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276

Denny: Blasting of forts viewed from ‘box seat’ on cliff

By Harold Denny

With U.S. forces before Cherbourg, France – (June 25)
Few battles have been as visible and as spectacular as today’s. I watched much of it from the edge of a cliff looking directly down on most of Cherbourg, like a box seat at a theater. It was the forward observation post of one of the leading elements in this assault and for a while an officer watched and gave directions for the supporting artillery fire.

In today’s battle were our infantry, artillery, tanks and even our warships, while the Germans were fighting back with heavy coastal guns, field artillery, machine guns, rifles and nasty-sounding rockets. And the operations of all these were spread out in full view on the stage below.

The day was warm and brilliant.

A big quarry had been dug into a cliff on the edge of the village of Hau Gringore, a suburb of Cherbourg, where 300 prisoners were taken when it fell yesterday. The quarry was still making trouble, however. With tunnels it was connected with the coastal plain and with Fort de Roule on our left, still unconquered then. Sometimes the Germans crept through the tunnel, fired a few bursts in our direction and retreated back. So, guards were posted there and eventually the mouth of the tunnel was blown up, after a dozen or two French men, women and children, with their baggage, dogs and cats, had been ushered from their shelters to a point beyond the town.

Three women captured

Among yesterday’s prisoners, an officer told me, were three women. One was a Ukrainian girl, together with her very young Ukrainian husband, who said they had been brought here as captives and forced to work as servants of the Germans. The girl was in an advanced state of pregnancy.

On our left, between us and Fort du Roule, was a fire-blackened ridge up which the Germans would sometime creep and open fire with machine guns. We could hear our infantry toiling up its slope.

To our right, across a green valley dotted with gray, little red-roofed houses and garden patches crisscrossed with hedges, was a ridge topped by German fortifications. Troops from another American unit were advancing on it from the other side of the ridge and American tanks could be seen nosing about on our side of the ridge. Those Germans were trapped.

City proper little damaged

Tourists who visited France in better days will remember the six-mile-long breakwater studded with the medieval-looking French fortifications that made this artificial harbor. On your left, as you used to enter Cherbourg on the liner Normandie from New York, you probably noticed an old fort and lighthouse on Île Pelée, which forms one doorpost of the main entrance through the breakwater. As your ship steamed farther in through the inner breakwater, you may have seen a similar old fort, Des Flamands, on your left as you turned into the French Line pier.

From my box seat, I could see the western half of the town of the ship canal, just to the west of the French Line pier. The city itself looked little damaged, but empty and dead. Few civilians are left there now.

Pelée and Flamands made nuisances of themselves to our troops yesterday, so at 8 o’clock this morning, our dive bombers smacked them and also Fort du Roule and the German positions on the ridge to our right. When I arrived in the frontline an hour later, Flamands and Pelée were silent, and smoke poured from the fortifications on the ridge to our right. The forts on the ridge still fired, however, and 88mm shells occasionally came in from Fort du Roule. And on a sandspit to my left of Flamands, as I saw it, were three determined 88s – pestiferous guns, with a hard, flat report and a shell that comes so fast you can hardly duck. They had fired all night and were at it again today.

Navy guns back artillery

Sitting beside me with field glasses was Army Lt. James S. Timothy of Washington, DC. He was observing for some 81mm howitzers behind, and this was an artilleryman’s dream. He called for blank range and down came his shells smack on the target. Billows of gray and yellow smoke, sand and black-burning explosive poured up, and we could see the Germans running for their dugouts. Lt. Timothy sent in shell after shell, but the Germans had their guns mounted in dugouts. They ran the guns out on tracks to shoot and then withdrew them. The German fire grew less frequent but persisted.

This was what we wanted to pacify; those forts that had been holding us up, geysers began appearing in the water just off Fort des Flamands. The Navy was firing a “ladder,” each shell moving in closer to the guns on that sandspit. Finally, they fell directly on the enemy positions. Then our ships opened up with shells that turned that little strip into a hell of red flame, black smoke and yellow dust.

I sat beside a Navy observer and could hear over his telephone the gibberish in which one officer on a distant ship conversed with him. The Navy gave the Germans a few more salvos and that was the end of that opposition.

Then the German nebelwerfers in the city began their big incendiary rockets toward our men off the right. They make an indescribable noise – something like titanic horse whinnying, or a gigantic aching creak – and you can see their missiles sail through the air. They make great bursts of flame where they hit and send up clouds of oily black smoke. They set grass fires and it seemed that the Germans were trying to burn our fellows out that way.

15 scout way into town

Meanwhile, an audacious patrol of 15 men, led by Lt. Shirley Landon of Spokane, Washington, went out around the right edge of the ridge and into the town, to scout the best way for the infantry to enter the city. We watched them anxiously through glasses as they skirted hedges and dodged behind the buildings below. Lt. Timothy and his mortars were ready to give fire support to them if they got into trouble.

We watched Lt. Landon, walking ahead, signal his men and they deployed across an open field and disappeared behind some buildings. They were daringly far into the town. We heard rifle fire down where they were but could see nothing. A general came up and watched, too. There was perhaps half an hour of suspense, which we relieved by watching our tanks maneuver across a valley, and then someone shouted.

Up the lane towards us came two doughboys and after them a long line of Germans with their hands clasped over their heads. Other doughboys walked at their flanks and a few more brought up the rear. I counted 78 prisoners before a startling explosion in my ear jarred my count and mystified me until I learned it had been one of our own blasts. Afterward, I learned there were 81 prisoners.

A Frenchman in the town met the patrol and pointed out the Germans in a ditch at the edge of a highway behind it. Pfc. William K. Petty of Indianapolis went in and flushed them out. Three started to pick up their rifles but they were instantly disarmed and all marched back.

Things were getting warm again on that right-hand ridge. At times this afternoon, it was like watching a circus, where so much was going on in different rings that it was impossible to see everything.

Those German fortifications were wreathed in smoke, and vehicles parked near them had disappeared. Yet some of them kept shooting. One 175mm coastal gun took potshots at one of our warships. It was just as if our warships had lost their tempers. They cut loose on the fortress then. Vast explosions shook the ground and pillars of smoke and dust rose. Then we saw a white flag go up above the skyline. The warships ceased firing. A few minutes later, we saw a long column of Germans come out of the fort and march toward our tanks in formation to give themselves up. Everybody on the cliff cheered, and that’s how the way was cleared for our infantry attack into the town, which began soon after. The way was not entirely cleared. Some surviving nebelwerfers still fired at us, and the enemy artillerymen and machine-gunners persisted. But the way had been cleared enough for our fellows to go ahead.

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277

Use of Cherbourg expected quickly

Limited utilization 24 hours after capture seen – Army repair units ready

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Cherbourg’s multiple harbors and elaborate port installations offered the Germans many chances for demolitions and obstructions, but it was doubtful whether their best efforts could prevent the Allies from swiftly exploiting this prize once it was securely in their hands.

Eyewitness reports have told of many fires and explosions in the dock area and apparently some attempt has been made to block the entrance to the basin where transatlantic liners once docked, but it will be a surprise if limited unloadings are not underway within 24 hours after the capture, and if a flood of men and supplies is not pouring in within ten days.

Moving in from the outside, ships come first to the outer roads of the great deep-water basin, about nine miles from east to west and two miles north to south. The basin is protected on three sides by land and on the north by some of the world’s greatest breakwaters. It is entered by two channels, each nearly 2,000 feet wide. It is regarded as impossible that the Germans can prevent the use of this anchorage, which could take many hundreds of big ships, even at low water.

Next is the inner basin, about four miles long and two miles wide, which is entered through a 1,500-foot gap in the breakwater. If the Germans have three or four big ships in the harbor – as is doubtful – they will probably try to close this channel.

Quai de France has best docks

Sticking out into the inner basin from the shore is a massive 1,800-foot quay, the Quai de France, on the east side of which are the best and deepest slip and docks, where four or five sizeable merchant ships could unload simultaneously. The entrance to this basin is about 600 feet wide, between the quay and the jetty, to the east, and there are reports that ships have already been sunk across it.

On the west side of the quay is a narrow channel, about 225 feet wide and 600 feet long, leading to the inner commercial basin and tidal drydock, which could presumably be blocked quite easily. Similarly, the entrance to the triple naval basins, about three-quarters of a mile to the west, is only about 275-300 feet across and might be blocked. The 25-foot tide offers a great advantage for swift clearing of any blocks, however, since it permits the cutting and blasting of obstacles at low tide.

Troops specially trained

The job of rehabilitation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday, will be greatly facilitated by a new unit, likely to play a prominent part in the war from now on. It is the Port Repair Ship Company, manned and operated entirely by Army engineers.

These men, dubbed “sailjers,” have been specially trained in this country for such jobs. Many of the Army divers got their experience working on the salvaging of USS Lafayette in New York, in conjunction with Navy divers. Others received their training at the Harbor Clearance School, run by the Corps of Engineers at Fort Screven, Georgia.

Among the first troops entering Cherbourg will be engineer port construction and port repair groups. These units will approach their objective, the harbor installations, by land. At the same time, engineer port repair shop companies, protected by our naval guns, will be using a water route to enter the harbor.

278

Shell holes tied by wire to London

Underground signal center in Britain controls every message to front
By John MacCormac

London, England –
A British-American-Canadian communications center of the dimensions of a small town was busily at work 100 feet under the quiet English countryside controlling the assault on Cherbourg. Its first great function was to transmit orders for the invasion of Normandy, but its construction had been launched two years before D-Day.

Its scope is such that in one area alone, the British Post Office laid two million miles of wire. It is equipped to communicate with the nearest frontline shell crater in Normandy or eventually with the point where the Anglo-American armies will meet those of Russia.

An all-services undertaking, its hundred teleprinters and switchboard and its 14-position telephone switchboard with 200 lines and 400 extensions are operated by WRENS, ATS and WAAFs. A separate radio room, manned by Royal Signal and U.S. Army Signal Corps operators, provides a special link, enabling field troops to summon air support. A battle in France, in fact, can be directed from this center completely by radio.

This giant communications center has now cast its tentacles ac ross the Channel. One schedule, anticipating the progress to be made for a certain date after D-Day, called for 700 miles of eight-wire lines, 1,500 miles of special pole line, 30,000 miles of field cable, 400,000 yards of assault cable and 50 special radio installations.

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Flying chaplain says French mass

U.S. captain preaches in French and English – church bells break 4-year silence

Normandy, France – (June 25)
The bells of a local church – silenced by the Germans for the same reason that Britain’s bells were muted – rang this morning for the first time in four years. And about half a hundred natives of this small village put in Sunday clothes to join 80 dusty khaki-clad G.I.s in services at the 400-year-old Norman church.

Capt. Donald M. Cleary, chaplain of the 9th Air Force fighter group here, aided by 1st Sgt. Kenneth Reilly of New York, celebrated mass and delivered two sermons, one in French – which Cleary speaks fluently – and the other in English.

Later in the day, Capt. Cleary, whose home is in Rochester, New York, celebrate another mass for 9th Air Force fighter-bomber pilots before they left to bomb Cherbourg, and a third for patients at a nearby hospital.

Capt. Cleary is the only chaplain with the 9th Air Force in France now and one of the chaplains in the U.S. air forces to wear a pilot’s wings, with the letter “S” in the middle. “S” stands for service pilot and means the chaplain is qualified to fly any aircraft in the air forces so long as it is not in combat.

Before the war, Capt. Cleary was chaplain at the Albany, New York, prison for four years and chaplain at Cornell University for seven years.

Capt. Cleary stated that the French people in this section suspected him at first when he scouted up and down the coastline in the course of his work. They thought he was going to “requisition” their cattle, but when he did not and they learned that he was a Catholic priest they became very friendly.

The French told Capt. Cleary that the Germans had used some churches to quarter troops, and at this village, citizens said that in the four years the Nazis occupied the country, they saw only one German soldier attend mass.

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29 robot nests set in Cherbourg area

Invasion bares Nazi sites of massive structures for mounting severe blows
By Frederick Graham

On the Cherbourg front, France – (June 25)
The Allied invasion of France probably saved Britain from even more severe bombing by robot planes. When the Germans retreated to Cherbourg, at least 29 sites, from which the enemy planned to launch pilotless planes, were found.

None of these sites was finished, but it seems likely that, if given time, the Nazis would have turned the Cherbourg Peninsula into a nest for these weapons.

The Germans appeared to have been building at least three types of launching platforms – two probably for jet-propelled pilotless planes and the other apparently for rockets. Only two of the latter-type sites have been found.

Fifteen sites in this area are of concrete and steel construction and rather simple. Usually, they consist of two parallel rows of concrete piling sunk in the ground. These stretch about 100 feet. Each carries a single tail on which the wheels of the robot plane ride. At the base, the piling is only eight inches above the ground, but at the takeoff point, the elevation is two feet six inches.

To the rear and the left of these tracks is a square, solid concrete building sunk deep in the ground. To the right and rear of the tracks, there are usually three or more long, slim concrete buildings which, from the air, look like skis. What these were used for is unknown.

Twelve other sites, similar except that the ski shed is missing, were found.

Technicians show interest

Two sites in which 9th Air Force technicians showed the deepest interest were altogether different and much larger. Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans to work on these believe they were for launching huge rockets. It is significant that all the sites found so far point in the direction of some British port.

Today, this correspondent toured one of the two large sites which may have been meant for rockets. It looked like a foundation for something gigantic, like a pyramid.

About eight miles southeast of Cherbourg, sink in the bottom of a valley rimmed by round, orchard-covered hills, it looked as if work had been suspended for some time. There was little engineering equipment around – perhaps a dozen concrete mixers, and these were rusty.

The entire site, estimated at 80 acres, was pockmarked by the big bombs of the Allies’ heavy bombers.

Joseph Heronard, a 29-year-old native of a nearby village, who worked on the job for the Germans, said that all the workers on the project believed the area was to be used for rocket launching. If it was, there were no signs of how the rockets were to be launched and nothing resembling launching equipment.

Rich concrete mixture

Heronard said the mixture used in the emplacements and buildings was rich – two and a half measures of sand for one of cement – and was reinforced by lattice-type steel rods. These rods were half an inch thick and ran up and down, making a square of 18 inches.

A small-gauge railroad for hauling supplies to the concrete mixers and from these to the pouring funnels was still here, but no rolling stock was visible.

Beneath some of the completed structures were deep tunnels, many twisting and turning to serve as baffles against bomb blasts.

Heronard said that the labor on job consisted on “requis” or Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans, Spanish men and Russian women. He said the entire job was under Todt Organization supervision, but a French company held a subcontract.

According to Heronard, the lot of the Russian women on the job was particularly hard and many were beaten by German straw bosses.

About two months ago, work on the site was halted because of Allied bombings, Heronard said.

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281

Army task eased by Bailey Bridge

Easily built, it spans 240 feet without pontoons – supports big tanks

SHAEF, England (Reuters) – (June 25)
A sketch drawn on the back of an envelope four years ago has played a big part in the American advance to Cherbourg.

It was the first rough draft of the Bailey Bridge, the most remarkable bridge in the history of military preparations, one that rapidly spans road gaps and replaces bridges blown up by the enemy.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery has said:

It is quite the best thing in that line we have ever had. It will be needed everywhere we operate in Europe.

It was revealed tonight that the bridge can cover without pontoons any gap up to 240 feet and much wider spaces with pontoons.

The inventor, Donald Coleman Bailey of the British Ministry of Supply, would not disclose the special metal used, but said, “we don’t like park railings.”

This bridge has greater strength and is more adaptable than previous types. It can cope with the ever-increasing weight of tanks.

All parts are light. Even the heaviest such bridge can be handled easily by six men. It fits together like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. After being built on rollers on the edge of a gap, it can be pushed over by the building crew without mechanical aid.

It is made up of 17 parts, with nine more for foundations. Only one steel pin is needed for each joint.

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French patriots gain new status

Forces of Interior put under Kœnig, acting by authority of Gen. Eisenhower

SHAEF, England – (June 25)
The French Forces of the Interior received today a status in the Allied operations comparable to that of the invasion forces.

Supreme Headquarters, which had already been moved to compliment the resistance forces on the positive contribution that their disruptive activities against the Germans had made to the battle of the beachhead, accepted them into partnership in the campaign for the liberation of their country. It announced tonight that Brig. Gen. Joseph-Pierre Kœnig, commander of the French forces in Britain, chief of the French military mission at headquarters and military delegate for liberated French territory, had been appointed commander of the French Forces of the Interior. The announcement said:

Gen. Kœnig is acting under and by the authority of the Supreme Commander [Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower] in directing the operations of the resistance forces in France.

The first message that the hero of Bir Hakeim had to deliver to his new command was one of the “warmest commendation” from Gen. Eisenhower. Gen. Kœnig predicted that the underground would play an “ever-increasing” part in the liberation campaign.

The elevation of the status of the underground was regarded as one of the first fruits of Gen. Eisenhower’s announced military agreement with Gen. Kœnig and the basis for another piece of practical cooperation that might lead to a more friendly understanding among the French, British and Americans. One outcome of the broader recognition of the French underground will probably be an effort to arm its forces more adequately.

Tolerance urged in France

Berne, Switzerland – (June 25)
Some leaders of the resistance movement in France are preaching tolerance under the watchword, “France first,” and their action implies a rebuke for all who advocate a general “purge” as a prerequisite to reconstruction.

The plea is made by the National Council of Resistance, which supports Gen. Charles de Gaulle and the French Committee of National Liberation. Its purpose is to rally the masses whose sole link hitherto has been detestation of the Germans and whose resistance has been merely passive.

The council disapproves of the publication of lists of “collaborationists” in which no distinction is made between those who deliberately mislead and those who have been misled. The council says:

The latter should not be driven into the arms of the occupant but, on the contrary should be welcomed by the resistance movement after due repentance.

Since the armistice, the population has become weary of “purges” ordered by every new Minister. Moreover, many minor government servants, from road menders to stenographers, resent being called “collaborationists” because they kept their jobs in order to live.

French protest U.S. news article

Analysis of differences with U.S. criticized; Roosevelt hits by Algiers paper
By Harold Callender

Algiers, Algeria – (June 25)
The French Committee of National Liberation has protested to the American diplomatic mission here against The Stars and Stripes’ publication of an article from the United States News saying that the differences between President Roosevelt and Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been caused by the President’s reluctance to sanction the return of French overseas possessions without guarantees for American security.

But a weekly here, that professes simon-pure de Gaullism, has published a long attack on Mr. Roosevelt on the assumption that he seeks “to acquire strategic bases at the expense of the French Empire.”

What impresses Frenchmen who are not extremists is the fact that the United States News article was published on French soil by an official American newspaper just when anti-American sentiment here has been stimulated by Gen. de Gaulle’s denunciation of American policy in France and the consequent severe comments in the American press. Frenchmen point out that The Stars and Stripes is widely read by Frenchmen here who cannot make fine distinctions between the source of an article and the instrument of its distribution.

Frenchmen concerned for future relations with the United States are disturbed by the whispering campaign to the effect that U.S. troops are unpopular in North Africa and will be even more unpopular in France. They wonder what the motive for this can be unless it is to alienate France from the West in the interest of what is called a continental policy based on the alliance with Russia that Gen. de Gaulle has advocated.

Even those who are friendly to the United States say, “You must not treat us like a conquered country.” Thus, they imply that there is a danger of such treatment. This is the popular version of the long-existing official fear of the Allied Military Government in France.

This fear and Gen. de Gaulle’s recent criticism of the Allied policy in liberated France have encouraged the tendency to look with frank distrust on the liberators of France, above all the Americans, to whom imperialistic aims of various kinds are widely attributed in private conversation and sometimes in print. One French observer said:

This is pure folly, for we shall rely on the United States for machinery for French factories, most of which have been destroyed or robbed of their equipment by the Germans, and in our weakened condition we shall have to count on America for protection for our empire.

283

Battle for Cherbourg

Time as well as harbor is at stake, for defense lets foe prepare for next blow
By Hanson W. Baldwin

London, England – (June 25)
The battle for Cherbourg, which was reaching its climax tonight, is a battle for time as well as conquest.

The eventual issue, as far as Cherbourg is concerned, is not in doubt; U.S. patrols have pushed into the streets of the city and at least one German propaganda agency has written the city off. There has never been much doubt, since our rapid penetration of the Atlantic Wall and our severance of the approaches to the Cotentin Peninsula, that Cherbourg would fall. What has been in doubt is how long the battle would take.

Cherbourg is naturally defensible by either land or sea; stouthearted defenders with the will to die might hold it for a long time. Obviously, it is to the German interest to make a protracted and vicious defense. The longer the facilities of the port can be denied to us by combat and by demolition, the better it will be from the German point of view. For the Germans know as well as we do the difficulties of unloading over open beaches; they know that the larger our armies grow in Normandy, the harder will be the task of supplying and reinforcing them unless we have a port.

Allies hampered by weather

They know, too, that our building to date has been made more difficult by unfavorable weather; gales and low overcasts have hampered our landing craft and reduced the margin of our air superiority. A long defense of Cherbourg, therefore, would give the enemy time. He might have the opportunity to overtake us in the supply and reinforcement race and he would be able to strengthen his positions along the high ground south and east of the Cotentin Peninsula.

The fierce fighting in Cherbourg and the bitter enemy resistance on the eastern flank of the Allied beachhead reveal something of the enemy’s intended strategy. The Germans have not yet committed the bulk of the strength of the rest of their divisions to Normandy. There are some 60 enemy divisions in France and the Low Countries and at least half of these could be thrown against us. But today there are not more than elements of 14-17 divisions facing our troops in Normandy, including those units hopelessly encircled in Cherbourg.

In a considerable part, this slow German buildup is the result of our interference by air with the enemy’s communications lines. But in part the slow rate of German reinforcement is deliberate; the enemy has not “shot the works” in Normandy because he fears another Allied landing elsewhere.

British offer threat

Such a strategy of cautious waiting would explain the fierce resistance offered on the British sector of our beachhead, the enemy has been constantly and consistently trying to whittle down the British bridgeheads across the Orne River and has so far strongly opposed with the majority of his tank forces the inland expansion of the British flank. It is the British flank that is outside the Cotentin Peninsula proper; it is the British flank that offers the eventual threat to Le Havre, to Rouen or to Paris.

The containing of our Normandy beachheads within the Cotentin Peninsula, therefore, seems to be the enemy’s strategy. Meanwhile, he appears to be trying to build up a mobile reserve to meet any other landing.

The enemy knows as well as we do that the Cherbourg Peninsula along will not be a sufficiently large base for an operation as huge as the conquest of France. He fears the great numbers of U.S. divisions that have never yet been in action but are trained and ready. The enemy is not likely to commit his full strength to battle either in the air or on the ground until he is certain that we shall not strike again against the coast of Western Europe.

Such a strategy explains the furious defense of Cherbourg, the holding and bitter delaying resistance south of the Cotentin Peninsula and the counterattacks against the British flank. The triumph of such a strategy would be to rob us gradually of the initiative that the Allies have not yielded since June 6 and to halt slowly the momentum and impetus of our Normandy drive. The failure of such a strategy would mean the rapid conquest of Cherbourg by the Allies and the expansion of the British flank southward and possibly eastward.

That is why the news tonight is encouraging. But time is still an important element in the victory.

Normandy wounded evacuated swiftly

Navy ‘overprepared’ because estimates exceed casualties

Aboard a U.S. cruiser, off the French coast (UP) – (June 24, delayed)
The task of moving thousands of wounded men from the Normandy beachhead to Great Britain by sea has almost been completed and was accomplished with complete success, Navy Capt. George Dowling said today.

Of the total wounded, slightly more than 5,500 were Germans or members of the polyglot forces making up the enemy armies in the invasion area.

Capt. Dowling said that his medical forces had been 50-75 percent overprepared for their task in the invasion. “We got ready for the worst – which of course didn’t happen,” he said.

Capt. Dowling used his experience in the Mediterranean, gleaned from handling the casualty evacuation in Sicily, to estimate what he needed in the invasion. In the early stages, the handling of all casualties fell entirely to naval transports and LSTs, which were rigged to take care of at least 200 wounded each after depositing their cargoes ashore.

Then practically every small craft which went to the beach, including the comparatively commodious, if flat-bottomed, types such as Tank Landing Craft (LCTs) were pressed into service to keep the lines of wounded moving.

The greatest percentage of the wounded have only minor injuries to arms and legs.

284

French cut hair off girls who were kindly to Nazis

Bricquebec, Normandy, France – (June 25)
With the goose-stepping enemy cleared from this village, Frenchmen are having their revenge on those who collaborated or fraternized with the Nazis and the hair has been sheared from the head of many a woman who was friendly to Nazi troops during the four-year occupation.

Lt. Francis Carpenter of 117-01 Park Lane South, Kew Gardens, Queens, reported that he was in the main square when he saw a crowd around a young girl.

He said:

Someone had the girl by the hair. Then I saw the flash of scissors and great chunks of black hair fell from her head. I asked a Frenchman the reason and he said she had been a friend of the Germans.

An American MP and I made an effort to keep the crowd moving, but without success. They soon had her bald, and she ran away sobbing.

Previously, Alfred Grey Jr. of 529 Crown Street, Brooklyn, New York, while driving through Bricquebec, had seen another girl completely baldheaded “running away from a crowd.”

Grey said he had also seen a buxom middle-aged woman “operating” on another girl with a pair of barbers’ clippers.

285

Editorial: Americans in Cherbourg

Cherbourg has been entered, and the first great prize of the invasion is virtually in Allied hands after a great final assault that began with the war’s mightiest combined barrage from land, from the sea and from the air, and is ending in bitter hand-to-hand fighting from house to house and from street to street. Some mopping-up of individual sections of the town still remains to be done; for the Germans converted many of its houses into forts, and German officers forced their weary troops to continue a hopeless struggle at the point of a gun in conformity with an order issued by their commander to fight or be shot. But these last desperate tactics were of no avail. Berlin was the first to announce the fall of the city, which means the loss of between 25,000 and 50,000 men, with the explanation that they had fought to the “last bullet.”

This is a splendid, heartwarming victory, won less than three weeks after D-Day and only five days after the actual attack on Cherbourg was launched. It completes the Allied break through the German “Atlantic Wall” and clinches our hold upon French soil. There is glory enough here for both the American and British armies: the Americans, who gained the city by assault; the British, who made the assault possible by holding against strong German counterattack the pivotal eastern end of the line.

Cherbourg will now become for the European war what Naples became for the Italian campaign and what Brest was in the last war – the great disembarkation port and supply base for the Allied armies which must break the deadlock in Europe. It is the third greatest port of France, amply able to take care of all Allied requirements until other ports are opened up by further Allied advances or invasions. And though German demolition squads have been reported active for some time, and the Germans have undoubtedly done their best to blow up the port’s facilities, Allied ability for restoration thus far has always exceeded the German power of destruction.

Cherbourg will permit the Allies to land troops and heavy equipment in protected waters. It will permit America in particular to ship men and supplies directly to the European continent and close to the battlefront without first unloading and transferring them at British ports. Finally, it will give the Allies a naval base from which whatever remains of the German submarine menace can be met far more effectively than at present. A safe base, safe communication lines and speed in the handling of equipment and supplies are of the essence of victory, and all these elements are now provided by the capture of Cherbourg.

Beyond that, the capture of Cherbourg means first the capture of the Cherbourg Peninsula. And this peninsula, together with the Allied bridgeheads captured in the first onslaught, provides the first really adequate marshaling ground and springboard for large-scale Allied attacks on the German armies in the West.

It may be assumed that one of the first Allied moves will be in a southwesterly direction toward the Loire to cut off the Brittany Peninsula as well and thereby secure the Allied rear., but the Germans have been forced ti tie down so much of their strength in the west to guard king coastlines still exposed to new invasions that they may have little left for mobile armies with which to counter Allied thrusts. And this opens up the chance for an even mire daring strategy than might have appeared possible at the start of the invasion when the Allies still counted on a mighty German counteroffensive – a strategy which would reduce the capture of the Brittany Peninsula to a secondary operation and wheel the Allied armies toward the southeast for a drive toward the Seine and Paris. The resumption of the American offensive southeast of Carentan, the new British-Canadian drive which led to the capture of Tilly-sur-Seulles, the continued German attacks at Caen, all point in that direction. Cherbourg is still 200 miles from Paris, but its capture has put the Allies definitely on the road to the capital of France. And beyond Paris lies Berlin.

286

Glider pilot tells of French landing

Flown here wounded, officer says craft hit tree – Nazi tanks did not fire

Washington (UP) – (June 25)
The first two wounded soldiers to arrive in this country from the invasion beachhead in France were identified today by the War Department as Lt. Col. Michael C. Murphy, 37, of Lafayette, Indiana, and Pfc. James A. Lester, 21, of Route 3, Clio, Michigan.

The two arrived last night at Mitchel Field, Long Island, on an Air Transport Command hospital plane and were taken to a nearby hospital. Their names were withheld overnight until the next of kin could be notified.

Lt. Col. Murphy said in New York yesterday, according to the Associated Press, that he landed his glider at Sainte-Mère-Église within 15 feet of a German tank column without being fired upon.

He recalled:

We were caught in a pretty heavy crossfire while still in the air. The pilot of the plane leading us was Col. Whitaker. I called him and told him that they were making a sieve of us back there. He said, “What in blazes do you think they are doing to me up here?”

I received my injury because my glider didn’t stop when I applied the brakes. It skidded on the tall grass and coasted into a tree.

When my glider came to rest, I was within 15 feet of an enemy reconnaissance tank column. I was pinned in and couldn’t move. I told the passengers what was in front of us. In about 15 seconds, the enemy started up the motors on their tanks and moved off. They moved past the other parked gliders and didn’t fire a shot.

Because snipers and machine-gunners were firing on then, Murphy said, the troops took cover in ditches at the edge of the field. He said a Medical Corps doctor risked the fire to reach the gliders and treat the injured.

Lt. Col. Murphy said the trip back to England from Normandy required three days because of snipers and artillery firing on the beach, as well as mines offshore.

He said:

It is interesting that it took twice as long to evacuate us across the Channel to England by boat as it took us to fly across the ocean.

The glider pilot, who formerly operated his own flying service at Findlay, Ohio, trained flight nurses at Bowman Field, Kentucky, before going overseas.

Four months ago, he married the former Mary Louise Neville of Lafayette.

287

LIFE (June 26, 1944)

Bayeux Tapestry reports old invasion

When the English-speaking allies fought their way into Bayeux June 7, they had returned to one of the great sources of English culture. That is the place from which Normans came in 1066 to conquer England. There, until the Germans came, hung the great Bayeux Tapestry which depicted the Battle of Hastings only a few years after it had been fought. Key examples of the 72 surviving scenes are reproduced here from the 230-foot embroidery on white linen, which used to be hung around the nave of Bayeux Cathedral. Today, three German scholars are studying it for Hitler in some “safe place,” said to be Linz, Austria. They have already described it as “a sort of German royal saga.”

By more respectable scholars, the Bayeux Tapestry has been called “the noblest monument in the world relating to English history” and “the most famous and most remarkable of medieval embroideries.” So factual is the work that the Bayeux Tapestry is one of our chief historical sources on the decisive Battle of Hastings. The borders are decorated with the Romanesque conceits then in fashion” griffins, phoenixes, fables, hunts, monsters, real animals.

The Battle of Hastings was the last great flare of infantry against armored cavalry for several centuries. The battle was won, however, not by mounted knights but by the Norman archers who pitched their arrows high and finally dropped one into Harold’s eye, killing him and demoralizing his army.


Harold, carrying a falcon (left), sets sail in Channel in 1064. Normans claim that he was going to pay a call on William of Normandy.


Landing in Normandy, Harold’s Saxons drop anchor in a calm sea. This contradicts Saxon story that Harold was shipwrecked in a storm. Saxons wear mustaches.


The seizure of Harold, by anchor, is effected by Count Guy. He surrendered him to Duke William, who released him after oath.


Harold sails home, having given oath to support William’s claim to throne of England on death of King Edward the Confessor.


Edward dies in 1066 and is hastily buried in St. Peter’s on site of Westminster Abbey. Harold is crowned King, violating his oath, a sacred thing in those times.


William’s fleet of about 700 open boats is built in the mouths of the Norman rivers. Each one carried about 20 men and three horses.


With a south wind setting out at midnight, Sept. 27, 1066, William’s fleet reaches Pevensey, England, by 9:00 a.m. The following four pictures are panorama of fleet.


Sailing swiftly by night, William carried “a great lantern” on mast of his own ship, the* Mora, as well as a brass Cupid on the prow.


The fleet carries not only Norman barons but also Breton and French adventurers to a total of perhaps 13,000 men, 2,000 horses.


A crusade was what Pope had called William’s expedition, for Harold had broken his word. Furthermore, William’s great-aunt was Edward the Confessor’s mother.


Landing at Pevensey on southeast coast of England is shown above. The horses are led ashore. Notice that Normans are clean-shaven.


In mail armor, Norman barons head for Hastings. Their weapons were the lance, sword, mace and kite-shaped shields. Duke William carried a mace in battle.


Normans dig entrenchments around camp at the town of Hastings and build a timber castle. They had won complete surprise.


The countryside is burned by Duke William’s men. His objective is to force Harold to fight quickly, before Normans supplies run out.


William (left) has his fine Spanish stallion, given him by King Alfonso of Spain, led up, to lead his army into battle. He has already caught two of Harold’s spies.


The Norman barons head for Hastings. Decorations at the top of the strip may include Harold’s personal insignia, The Fighting Man.


Harold’s spy, caught by the Normans, is shown the Norman host and in turn tells Duke William which way Harold is coming. William is left center, the spy at right.


The spy is released after having been wined, dined and impressed by Norman power, Decorations of strip include griffins, donkey.


Spy tells King Harold that the Normans are coming. Harold has formed strong shield wall on a ridge after marching 30 miles a day.


The battle begins with a volley of Norman arrows, then the charge by the heavily-armed Norman knights, here shown all across the bottom row of these two pages.


“Dex aie!,”cried Normans, meaning “God’s aid!” Replied Saxons, “Out! Out!” Another favorite Saxon cry: “Godemite” (God Almighty).


**The shield wall of housecarls of Harold is impregnable against charges of the Norman knights, and volley of javelins, casting axes and stones throws Normans back.


Norman allies were routed by Saxon levies, who pursued but were themselves cut to pieces on the open plain by the Norman knights.


The Norman horses, including William’s, are decimated by the Saxons.


At cry he is dead, William raises his helmet (left) and rallies his men.


In hand-to-hand fighting, King Harold’s two brothers are cut down.


Harold is killed (center), an unaimed arrow had pierced his eye.


The Norman knights harry the remnants of the Saxon shield wall.

288

Our worldwide war

American armed might engages enemy from France to the Far Pacific

…

289

Incident in Normandy

Some U.S. infantrymen move the battle ahead by eliminating a German sniper in a barnyard

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The High Command visits beachhead

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290

First casualties were lower than had been expected

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291

Sea power wins on Normandy coast

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292

Plane rockets

They are part of invasion arsenal

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293

Völkischer Beobachter (June 27, 1944)

Der letzte Funkspruch des Seekommandanten –
Die große Stunde der Marinebatterie ‚Hamburg‘

pk. Bei der Kriegsmarine, im Juni 1944 –
In der Geschichte der Kriegsmarine gehört das Datum des 25. Juni 1944 den Batterien von Cherbourg, so wie der Name der Marinebatterie „Marcouf“ mit dem ersten Tag der Invasion verbunden bleiben wird. Was sich im Einzelnen an Taten soldatischer Größe und aufopfernder Tapferkeit in Batterien und Funkstellen, in Widerstandsnestern und Stützpunkten der Kriegsmarine abgespielt hat, liegt heute noch jenseits unseres Wissens. Die knappen Funksprüche, die der Seekommandant von Cherbourg gab, sagen nichts, was über die kargen operativen Tatsachen hinausginge, klar und mit einer fast grausamen Nüchternheit. Und doch liegt in den schicksalsschweren Meldungen, die in den letzten Stunden des Kampfes in den Äther gingen, eines Ahnen um die opfervolle Größe der Verteidiger. „An alle – Heil Hitler – hier Cherbourg – Sk.“ Das war der letzte Spruch, den der Seekommandant Konteradmiral Hennecke im offenen Text absetzen ließ. Das war am 25. Juni 1944, 19,05 Uhr.

Aber bis zu dieser Stunde waren aus seinem Gefechtsstand kurz und knapp die Meldungen gekommen, die mit Blitzlichtern den Kampf der tapferen Batterien der Seefestung beleuchteten und ihre stolzen Erfolge. Sie haben in dem Endkampf um Cherbourg der feindlichen Flotte noch schwere Wunden geschlagen, als endlich einmal die schweren Schiffe in die Greifweite ihrer Rohre kamen. Schon in den Morgenstunden des 24. Juni hatten die Batterien „Hamburg“ und „Brommy“ einen Verband feindlicher Kreuzer und Zerstörer unter Feuer genommen, der – um Batterien und Leitstände treffsicherer beschießen zu können – näher an die Küste herangestaffelt hatte. In diesem Artillerieduell zwischen Küste und Seestreitkräften wurden ein Kreuzer und ein Zerstörer mehrfach getroffen, so daß beide Schiffe abdrehen mußten und sich hinter einer Nebelwand in Sicherheit brachten.

An diesem Tage lag bereits seit Hellwerden stärkstes Feuer auf den Stellungen, dass sich im Laufe des Tages, vor allem in den Nachmittagsstunden zu einem ununterbrochenen Inferno von Bombenserien, Einschlägen der schweren Schiffartillerie und der von Land herüberreichenden Feldartillerie der Amerikaner steigerte. Dennoch hielten die tapferen Kanoniere der Batterien, die auch nach Land hinschießen konnten, die Anmarschstraßen des Gegners, seine Transport- und Bereitstellungsräume unter Feuer und brachten so der schwerkämpfenden deutschen Infanterie fühlbare Entlastung. Am späten Nachmittag gegen 18 Uhr hatte das Trommelfeuer eine Intensität erreicht, die keinen Zweifel mehr über den äußersten Ernst der Lage zuließ.

Als nach einer Nacht voll Störungsfeuer der Morgen des 25. Juni dämmerte, setzten die Angriffe in fast noch gesteigerter Stärke wieder ein. Zu den schweren Kalibern der Schiffsartillerie kamen die Einschläge von Granatwerfern, die der Feind im Vorgelände der Batterien in Stellung brachte. Dabei bekamen die Verteidiger in ihren Löchern und Bunkern kaum jemals einen Feind zu Gesicht, nur immer wieder das Brüllen und Bersten des Materials, das Schüttern und Beben der Erde unter dem Trommeln der Einschläge aller Kaliber, die vor dem Sturm der feindlichen Infanterie bereits jeden Widerstand ersticken sollten.

Eine halbe Stunde nach Mittag kam etwa 13 Kilometer vor der Küste wieder ein feindlicher Kreuzerverband in Sicht. Aus den schweren Rohren der Batterie „York“ rauschte Salve auf Salve herüber, während um die Batterie selbst nahezu ununterbrochen die Erdfontänen der Einschläge standen. 13,05 Uhr: Salven von „York“ liegen deckend! Treffer auf einem der schweren Kreuzer, bei dem auch leichte Kreuzer standen.

Etwa eine Stunde später steht die Silhouette eines Schlachtschiffes in den Okularen der Entfernungsmesser: zwei Drillingstürme vorn und achtern, zwei Gittermasten – California-Klasse. Vorn und achtern blitzen die Mündungsfeuer, sechs Einschläge wirbeln im Vorgelände in die Höhe. Salventakt. Sie schießen sich heran. Und dann: Jetzt schießen alle vier Türme Vollsalve.

Die Küstenbatterien antworten. „York“ hat einen der Kreuzer erneut eingedeckt, auf dem deutlich starke Rauchentwicklung beobachtet wurde. Und wieder pfeifen und bersten Bomben um die Batterien, greifen die Tiefflieger mit ihren Geschoßgarben nach den Scharten der Geschütze.

Dann wächst wieder ein Schlachtschiff über die Kimm, es muß Prince of Wales-Klasse sein. Viererturm vorn und Achtern. Aber es bleibt unser Feuerbereich. 15,15 Uhr meldete „York“: Erneut Treffer in den Aufbauten eines Kreuzers, der hart abdreht. Indessen mannen ungeachtet des schweren Beschusses die Kanoniere Munition an die Geschütze. Schließlich läßt der Feind Nebelbomben in das Blickfeld der Batterien werfen, um die Feuerleitung zu erschweren.

Während „York“ im Westteil der Seefront kämpft, erlebt am äußersten Ostrand der Batteriefront die schwere Marinebatterie „Hamburg“ ihre große Stunde. 14,32 Uhr sinkt draußen auf der grauen See ein britischer Kreuzer im Feuer ihrer schweren Granaten. Vom Leitstand aus sehen sie deutlich, wie sich das schwere Schiff überlegt, kentert, sich langsam noch einmal aufrichtet und dann schnell auf Tiefe geht. Aber es gibt keine Pause: jetzt liegen die Salven in einem neuen Ziel. Ebenfalls ein Kreuzer, der bald nach den Treffern auf qualmt. In einer Feuerpause geht unter den Kanonieren der Batterie ein Wort um, das der Seekommandant ihnen durchgegeben hatte. „Vorbildlich!“ Indessen beobachten die Männer am Entfernungsmesser, wie der schwere beschädigte Kreuzer achtern mehr und mehr wegsackt und schließlich mit schwerer Schlagseite sinkend außer Sicht kommt. Auch der kam nicht mehr bis Portsmouth!

Und wieder brüllen die Geschütze, donnert in das Krachen der Einschläge das polternde Bersten von Flächenwürfen feindlicher Bombergeschwader, ein paar Rohre gegen die hundertfache Feuerkraft des Gegners. Sie wissen, daß sie hier ihren letzten Kampf kämpfen. Vielleicht wissen sie auch, daß sie, die vielen unbekannten Soldaten der Marineartillerie, an diesen Tagen in die Geschichte des letzten schweren Kampfes der Seefestung Cherbourg unauslöschlich den Namen ihrer Batterien geschrieben haben.

Seitdem der Seekommandant seinen letzten Funkspruch abgesetzt hatte, wenige Sekunden bevor die eingebaute Wasserbombe die ganze Funkanlage zerriss, haben die Batterien der Kriegsmarine keine Verbindung mehr. Und in der schweren Nacht zum 26. Juni, in der diese Zeilen geschrieben werden, wissen wir nicht, an welchen Stellen des Festungsbereichs noch im letzten Opfergang Marineartilleristen kämpfen und wo sich schon das große Schweigen über die Batteriestellungen gesenkt hat.

Kriegsberichter HANNS H. REINHARDT