Denny: Cherbourg given to French as their liberated city
By Harold Denny
Cherbourg, France – (June 27)
U.S. forces formally occupied Cherbourg today and forthwith presented it to the French people as the first large city to be returned to them. In a square that hissed with snipers’ bullets yesterday and was still blotched with German placards today, an American general this afternoon gave the city a Tricolor made from red, white and blue parachutes in which the vanguard of our invasion attacked from the skies June 6, and in return he received French thanks for the liberation.
The general was Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins of New Orleans, who earlier commanded a division at Guadalcanal and who, it is now permitted to say, commanded the U.S. VII Army Corps that made this brilliant drive across the peninsula and up to its metropolis.
Gen. Collins entered the city today in an armored car and he wore a steel helmet, but the whole sense of today’s simple ceremony was not that of an arriving conqueror but of a rescuing friend. This was French soil. We and our Allies on land, on the sea and in the air had driven off the invader and here the land was returned to its own again.
The exchange of honors took place in the Place Napoléon on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville at 4:00 this afternoon, only a little over six hours after the last German stronghold in the arsenal at the west side of the port surrendered and its 200 defenders marched out under a white flag.
Our troops were still scouring the city for lurking snipers, and an occasional rifle cracked. Germans who had changed into civilian clothes were being rounded up in large numbers, usually on denunciation of the French. Firetrucks were rushing about stopping a few fires that smoldered after the fighting ended. But the city was at peace at last, and it gave one a queer feeling to drive at ease through roads and streets that only a few hours ago were full of death.
And now had come the rounding out of the first phase of our invasion. We had a real port through which to supply our future and growing operations.
The city seemed dead and deserted early this morning. Few of its inhabitants had remained, and these were in hiding. But as the fighting died down, they began to come back at 9:00 this morning. While the arsenal held out, a group of French municipal employees who had kept large French, American and British flags throughout the occupation, took them out and hoisted them over the entrance of the Hôtel de Ville, where they fluttered throughout today’s ceremony.
U.S. Army band at ceremony
White-bearded Mayor Paul Reynaud of Cherbourg was among those gathered on the Hôtel de Ville steps. A composite company of men from various units that yesterday were fighting and last night slept in muddy foxholes in a driving rain was formed up facing the Hôtel de Ville, and with them a U.S. Army band.
A sizable crowd had gathered by 4:00 – old men and women with smiles again in their strained faces and laughing young people. An American soldier appeared with an accordion and had a group of these trying to sing “Home on the Range.” The air was brought with happiness. U.S. fighter planes, that yesterday were strafing Germans on the city’s edge, wheeled low over the city and dipped in salute. The French in the streets cheered and waved.
Gen. Collins’ subordinate generals gathered beside the French notables on the City Hall steps. Then up rolled Gen. Collins to an armored car while the band rendered flourishes and ruffles.
Mayor Reynaud spoke first, thanking the soldiers of a sister republic for deliverance from four years of tyrannous occupation. Then Gen. Collins expressed gratification that our troops, as part of a great Allied effort, had returned this first important French city to France. The general spoke in French and ended with “Vive la France!” which brought a joyful shout from the crowd and an answering cry of “Vive l’Amérique!”
The band played the “Marseillaise” while troops presented arms and the French looked transported. Then “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played.
Gen. Collins and his generals went inside the Hôtel de Ville for a few minutes to visit the French officials, then departed, and the city took up the business of returning to normal life.
German leaders surrender
The beginning of this happy ending came at 4:30 yesterday afternoon, when the commander of Fortress Cherbourg, Gen. Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, and the commander of the naval forces formerly based in Cherbourg, RAdm. Walter Hennecke, surrendered themselves in circumstances unusual for senior officers.
Most of the city by that hour had been occupied by our forces, but part of the western half was still held by the enemy, and there were still unconquered gunners in Fort du Roule at the southern edge of the town.
The commander of U.S. troops trying to clean up the west side arrived in person just as his men had discovered the mouth of another tunnel at Fort Saint-Sauveur at the southern margin of the city west of Fort du Roule. The Germans were firing from its mouth.
The American commander ordered up artillery and prepared to blast a way into the tunnel. Just then, German voices were heard crying “Cease firing!” The Americans held their fire and out came a German lieutenant goose-stepping and carrying a white flag. He informed the American commander that Gen. von Schlieben was there and wished to surrender himself and the men in the tunnel with him.
The American commander accepted this and out came Gen. von Schlieben and the admiral and then the soldiers to the astonishing total of 800.
Gen. Collins was touring frontline positions in an armored car when this happened, and he was informed by radio. The German general and admiral and their aides were taken in command cars, guarded by a cavalcade of guards in jeeps, to Gen. Collins’ headquarters, while Gen. Collins hurried there to receive them.
Gen. Collins tried to persuade Gen. von Schlieben then to surrender the fortress and avoid further, needless sacrifice of life. At that time, except for two guns deep in the face of a cliff at Fort du Roule which had resumed firing, the only serious center of resistance was in the naval arsenal, where the Germans were still firing rifles, although much of the arsenal was ablaze around them.
Gen. Collins asked Gen. von Schlieben why he permitted his men to go on fighting after he himself had surrendered since their sacrifice could give no material delay to our operations.
“I learned in Russia that small groups can achieve great delays,” the German replied.
He declined to comment when the American general asked him why he had not resisted on the outer rings of hills admirably suited to defense.
The German officers were allowed to clean up and eat and were then sent farther to the rear. They will be evacuated according to the usual procedure and, of course, in accordance with their rank.
Gen. von Schlieben is an enormous man, both broad and tall. He was still wearing a helmet when he surrendered. He would fit the Hollywood ideal of Prussian Junker. The admiral is short, stout and steely-eyed.
This morning, a powerful loudspeaker mounted on a truck was wheeled up near the naval arsenal, and an American officer told the garrison in German that their leader had surrendered and there was no hope for them unless they also surrendered. They complied at 9:45 this morning.
Unlike so many towns through which we have moved in this march through Normandy, Cherbourg is fairly intact. Many buildings were smashed at the edges, where bitter fighting took place, and many structures in the center are pitted from the fire of German guns, which still stand at the street corners. But this city as a whole survives.
