14 warships shell Cherbourg at once
British newsman describes destruction of batteries defending harbor
By Desmond Tighe, Reuters correspondent
Aboard HMS GLASGOW, off Cherbourg Harbor, France – (June 25, delayed)
U.S. battleships and heavy cruisers, supported by two British cruisers and seven destroyers, are firing broadside after broadside into German shore batteries at vital key points on the fringes of Cherbourg Harbor in support of the Army.
The bombardment started at exactly 11 minutes past 12:00 this morning and has lasted for more than three hours with German long-range 450mm shore batteries returning the fire vigorously.
As I watched this bombardment from the bridge of HMS Glasgow, victor of the recent Bay of Biscay battle, we are steaming steadily some 15,000 yards off the breakwater of Cherbourg Harbor.
Air resounds with crashes
Our six-inch guns are blazing away as shells scream into a German fort. The air resounds with the crash of broadsides from the battleships, cruisers and destroyers. The Channel sea is whipped with wicked-looking grey-black splashes as we are straddled time and time by German shore batteries.
The German gunnery is good and although we are plastering their concrete gun emplacements with tons of high explosives some of them keep on firing.
The U.S. bombardment task force is commanded by U.S. Navy RAdm. Morton L. Deyo. Adm. Deyo is flying his flag in the heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa. Among the warships in his battle squadron are the battleship USS Texas, USS Nevada, USS Arkansas; the cruiser USS Quincy, and the two British cruisers, HMS Glasgow and HMS Enterprise. We are escorted by a strong force of U.S. destroyers. Minesweepers clear the way for us and overhead Lightnings give us constant cover.
The German shore batteries open first. Great spurts of water ruse up near the foremost minesweeper. She continues to move inshore. Again, the sharp crack of bursting shells as the batteries fire. They are sending over anti-personnel shells which burst in the air in a cloud of white smoke with flaming streamers streaking into the sea.
The Enterprise lying on out starboard beam starts bombarding.
The Nevada passes close to us and lets fly a 14-inch broadside. The air seems to shake as these shells roar away toward the German batteries with the sound of an express train.
Now all ships are firing. Our forward turrets open up with a roar. The sky is now filled with smoke. Visibility is practically nil.
We continue to blaze away with our guns at the shore battery. I watch the gunnery officer calmly giving his orders. There are three ugly cracks and we are straddled close to our stern. The German gunnery is good.
The Nevada, looking magnificent standing out of the smokescreen, her Stars and Stripes battle ensign flying high at her topmast, turns away to starboard to take up another bombardment position. She fires her after 14-inch guns with a roar. We are now being straddled by the shore batteries with alarming regularity.
It is now nearly 1 o’clock. The Nevada reappears out of the smokescreen, and as she passes close on our port beam fires point-blank a broadside of 14-inch shells. The range is so short for her that her guns are depressed to their lowest level. Again and again, she pours high explosives into the shore batteries. Some have now stopped but others still carry on.
We continue to fire away with our six-inch guns.
The Quincy appears out of the smoke. Her guns belch broadsides. The German batteries continue to pepper us. Shrapnel tinkles on the bridge structure and on the side of the ship.
The Enterprise is firing away with all she’s got. She passes close to us and the captain waves cheerfully from the bridge.
Then things get really hot. We have been scheduled to bombard for 90 minutes and the time limit is up. Three shells roar right over the ship to explode in the sea some 50 yards away. They are followed by more.
The batteries seem to have got our range. Adm. Deyo makes us a signal to retire to the swept channel. The Nevada leads us out, her guns blazing away at the shore batteries. For a time, all is quiet.
Twenty minutes later, we are again some 15,000 yards from the shore firing at one stubborn battery to the southeast of Cherbourg. The others seem to be out of action.
Aircraft are spotting for us, wheeling over the target area. We close in on the shore and then let fly with a six-gun broadside. Another and another until the gun position is covered with brown smoke curling into the air. But the German gunners continue to fire.
The captain says rather apologetically: “We are being fired at again. Lie low.” We can see the pinpoints of light from this four-gun battery as it opens fire. Then the shells scream over. The Quincy, Tuscaloosa, Nevada and Enterprise are all firing.
It is now a quarter to 4. We have been in action for three and a half hours.
We steam away from Cherbourg, our bombardment mission completed.
U.S. destroyers are laying a white smokescreen as we head north. The Tuscaloosa, Quincy and Nevada, steaming line ahead, pass us on our starboard beam. As a farewell gesture, they fire broadside after broadside of 14-inch shells into the German positions until we are out of range. The shells scream overhead.
As we steam toward our home port in the light of the setting sun, the commander speaks, “The man brace will be spliced as soon as we are in harbor.”
Byrd’s son is wounded
Is paratrooper serving with invasion forces in France
Washington – (June 26)
Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) received word today that his son, Pvt. W. Beverley Byrd, a paratrooper, had been wounded while serving with the invasion troops in France.
Pvt. Byrd, now in his early 20s, is a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. His injuries were not specified.
All three of Senator Byrd’s sons are in the armed services. Harry F. Byrd Jr., the eldest, is a naval lieutenant in the Pacific area; Beverley is the next oldest; Richard Evelyn, the youngest, is a sergeant in the Armored Infantry.