Osprey's Cherbourg 1944

One of the major issues regarding the Normandy invasion of June 1944 was logistics. It is one thing to land thousands of troops on a beach, but quite another thing to keep those troops supplied. By choosing the relatively easy landing location of Normandy, the Allies had to also provide a place to off load supplies and equipment. To this end they built and floated across the Mulberry port sections which allowed quite a lot of supplies to be off loaded. However, this was never planned as a permanent solution and what was really needed was an actual, operating port.

There were a few on the French coast of the English Channel as well as along the Atlantic coast that could be used, but the one that was chosen was Cherbourg. This had the benefit of being probably the least defended and was a relatively short distance from the UK. It was also a goodly distance from Germany, which reduced the German's ability to reinforce it once it was obvious that it was an Allied goal.

By this time of the war, the troops and equipment that were defending these areas was not the best. Truthfully, they were mostly older soldiers, those recovering from wounds suffered on the Eastern Front, and those troops of questionable abilities. Cherbourg in particular had a lot of Kriegsmarine soldiers due to the port and Luftwaffe troops used to man the air defenses. Most of the heavy weaponry (guns and tanks) were from the French and so rather obsolete, though the Luftwaffe's 88mm AA guns were quite potent.

Cherbourg had been the recipient of considerable defensive works and there were the large coastal guns that were able to wreak havoc on both the Normandy beaches and with ships at seat. Indeed, during the early days of the campaign, there were some rather spirited gun battles between Navy ships and the coastal artillery, with both sides taking losses.

Typical of the way the German Army tended to work, local commanders were not given the freedom to operate the way they thought was the best in any situation. Instead, they had to contact headquarters in Berlin for permission. This micro-management by those who were not in the battle area is, thankfully for the world, one of the main reasons that war did not go on for a longer period of time. Again and again, the ability to adjust to fluid battle situations was stymied by the brass in Berlin.

Still, the Allies (basically the US troops who had landed on Utah beach and the two airborne divisions) were able to slowly move towards the city, taking lots of prisoners and eventually forcing out the German defenders. Of course, the Germans did not just let the Allies walk in and put up a stiff defense. They also managed to do an excellent job of destroying port facilities, considerably delaying the abilities of the Allies to get the port back up to full operation.

In this book, the author does a superb job of telling the story. We are provided a background to the preparation of defenses as well what troops and equipment were deployed in defense of not only the city but also the entire peninsula on which Cherbourg is located. All of this is enhanced by period photos (most of them taken by the Allies), and the excellent maps and artwork of Steve Noon. It very much brings into focus the first major success of the Northeastern European campaign, a success that allowed the influx of supplies so critical to any military campaign. A book that is quite worth reading and highly recommended for the enthusiast.

May 2015

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