Battle of Cherbourg

Cotentin peninsula and port of Cherbourg, 1944

Date	6–30 June 1944
Location	Normandy, France
Result	Allied victory

Belligerents

United States

United Kingdom

Germany

Commanders and leaders

J. Lawton Collins

Matthew Ridgway

Friedrich Dollmann

Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben

Strength

Unknown

40,000

Casualties and losses

8,500 killed or missing:
2,800 killed,
5,700 missing,
13,500 wounded
Total: 22,000 casualties

7,000 – 8,000 killed or missing
30,000 captured
Total: 37,000-38,000 casualties

The Battle of Cherbourg was part of the Battle of Normandy during World War II. It was fought immediately after the successful Allied landings on June 6, 1944. Allied troops, mainly American, isolated and captured the fortified port, which was considered vital to the campaign in Western Europe, in a hard-fought, month-long campaign.

When they drew up their plans for the invasion of France, the Allied staff considered that it would be necessary to secure a deep-water port to allow reinforcements to be brought directly from the United States. (Without such a port, equipment packed for transit would first have to be unloaded at a port in Great Britain, unpacked, waterproofed and then reloaded onto landing craft to be transferred to France). Cherbourg, at the end of the Cotentin Peninsula, was the largest port accessible from the landings.

The Allied planners decided at first not to land directly on the Cotentin Peninsula, since this sector would be separated from the main Allied landings by the Douve River valley, which had been flooded by the Germans to deter airborne landings. On being appointed overall land commander for the invasion in January 1944, British Army General Bernard Montgomery reinstated the landing on the Cotentin peninsula, partly to widen the front and therefore prevent the invaders becoming sealed into a narrow lodgement, but also to enable a rapid capture of Cherbourg.

In the early hours of June 6, paratroopers the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula. Although the landings were scattered, they nevertheless secured most of the routes by which the US VII Corps would advance from Utah Beach. The US 4th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach shortly after dawn with few casualties.

...
Wikipedia