Allies Bombard Cherbourg: Naval Guns Support Port Assault

American and British warships sailed within range of German coastal batteries and traded fire for hours in one of the most aggressive naval bombardments of the Normandy campaign. On June 25, 1944, a task force including three battleships, four cruisers, and eleven destroyers opened fire on fortified positions surrounding the port of Cherbourg, supporting the U.S. VII Corps’ ground assault on the critical harbor. Cherbourg was the primary objective of the American sector after the D-Day landings on June 6. The Allies desperately needed a deep-water port to sustain the massive flow of supplies required for the breakout from Normandy. The artificial Mulberry harbors at Omaha and Gold beaches had been badly damaged by a severe storm on June 19-22, making Cherbourg’s capture even more urgent. General J. Lawton Collins’s VII Corps had been fighting down the Cotentin Peninsula for three weeks to reach the port. The naval bombardment was intended to suppress the German coastal batteries that were slowing the ground advance. Rear Admiral Morton Deyo commanded the task force, which included USS Texas, USS Nevada, and USS Arkansas. The engagement was costly on both sides: German guns scored hits on several Allied ships, badly damaging USS Texas and the destroyer USS Barton. The battleship Nevada took direct hits that started fires aboard. Allied shells, in turn, silenced several battery positions and destroyed ammunition dumps. German commander Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben surrendered the Cherbourg garrison on June 27, but the Germans had systematically demolished the port facilities before capitulation. Mines, sunken ships, and destroyed cranes rendered the harbor unusable for weeks. Allied engineers worked around the clock to restore operations, and Cherbourg did not reach full capacity until September. The port eventually handled more cargo than all other European ports combined during the final months of the war.