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Title
Chain of Command
Description
Cherbourg fell three weeks after the invasion of Normandy, but the destruction of the port meant the Allies would have to find other ways to receive their much-needed supplies.
Subject
Source
Publisher
Date
1944-06-27
Scenario#
10
Scenario Description
Cherbourg fell three weeks after the invasion of Normandy, but the destruction of the port meant the Allies would have to find other ways to receive their much-needed supplies.
Location
Cherbourg, France
Battle Name
Battle Narrative
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 6 June 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.
Narrative Source
Combatants
German
American

Geolocation