|
The bombardment of Cherbourg took place on June 25, 1944, during World War II, when ships from the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy attacked German fortifications in and near the city, firing in support of U.S. Army units that were engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg. In doing so, the Allied naval forces engaged in a series of duels with coastal batteries and provided close support to infantry as they fought to gain control of the city. The bombardment was initially scheduled to last just two hours but it was later extended by an hour to support army units attempting to breaking into Cherbourg's city streets. After the bombardment, German resistance lasted until June 29, when the port was eventually captured by the Allies. Afterwards, the task of clearing the port for use lasted several weeks. When the Allies managed to secure a bridgehead after the Normandy landings, the Germans adopted a strategy to bottle up the Allied forces in Normandy and deny them the nearest major port at Cherbourg to starve them of supplies. By mid-June U.S. infantry had sealed off the Cotentin Peninsula, but their advance had stalled and the Germans began to demolish the port's facilities. In response, the Allies renewed their efforts to capture the city, and by June 20 three infantry divisions under General "Lightning Joe" Collins had advanced within a mile of German lines defending Cherbourg. Two days later, the general assault began and on June 25, a large naval task force began a concentrated bombardment of the town to help neutralize the threat of German coastal artillery and to provide support to the assaulting infantry. The task force was divided into two groups, each consisting of a variety of warships including battleships, cruisers, destroyers and minesweepers. Each ship was assigned a series targets inland with orders to duel with batteries which engaged them. German fires were accurate out to , and in some cases they were able to bracket the radically maneuvering ships. Several Allied ships were holed, but faulty ammunition hampered German efforts. In several encounters, after being hit the heavy ships were able to withdraw after Allied destroyers obscured them with smoke. After the action, Allied reports agreed that the most effective aspect of the bombardment was the fire that was provided by the small ships. Under the direction of army spotters, these ships were able to engage point targets up to inland, which proved invaluable in providing close support to the assaulting Allied infantry. In contrast, while the force's heavy guns disabled 22 of 24 assigned navy targets, they were unable to destroy any of them and, consequently, infantry assaults were required to ensure that the guns could not be reactivated. When the city fell, the neutralized casemated guns, which the Germans could have turned inland towards advancing Allied troops, were still aimed out to sea. ==Background== Once German commanders assessed the Allied assault at Normandy as the primary invasion, they sought to limit the lodgment while they prepared a counter-offensive. To preserve naval assets, the Cherbourg-based German E-boats were transferred to Saint-Malo. Four destroyers from Brest made for Cherbourg to follow the E-boats, but they were sunk or disabled. By June 14, the Germans were attempting to deny the Allies use of Cherbourg's major port facility by blocking, mining and demolishing its harbor. The violent English Channel storm that thrashed apart the artificial port Mulberry A raged until June 22. Logistic movement ashore was temporarily crippled, and the Allies desperately needed Cherbourg's port in their possession.〔Morison, Samuel Eliot, (History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: The invasion of France and Germany 1944–1945 ) ISBN 0-252-06963-3 (v.1). 1957,1985, paper 2002. Chapter XII Cherbourg June–September 1944, online site, page 175, 195–198, viewed 07/18/2011.〕 From June 18 the Cotentin Peninsula was sealed off by Allied infantry, but the German line was stabilized and the American advance stalled. Cherbourg held a garrison of 40,000 with a new commander (as of June 23), Generalleutnant〔Rankin, Nicholas. ''Ian Fleming’s Commandos: The Story of 30 Assault Unit in WWII''. ISBN 978-0-199-78282-6 p. 315.〕 Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben. Hitler believed that the Allied invasion would fail without Cherbourg, and ordered it made impregnable, awarding it "fortress" status. The American ground forces would lose over 2,800 dead and 13,500 wounded conquering it.〔Morison, Samuel E., op.cit., page 195-198〕 The Germans had emplaced coastal guns in and around Cherbourg in twenty casemated batteries—fifteen were 150-mm or greater, and three were 280-mm. There were many 75-mm and 88-mm guns, some of which could be trained inland towards advancing infantry. To support the ground assault, Rear Admiral Morton Deyo began putting together a naval bombardment plan on June 15. While planning went forward, a late June storm raged in the English Channel, scattering Deyo's task force out to open sea and into British ports; they reassembled in Portland, England. On the Cotentin Peninsula, the U.S. Army VII Corps advance, after some progress, was stalled by entrenched German resistance.〔 The proposed naval bombardment was complicated, because the advance of the 9th, 79th and 4th Divisions had brought them within a mile of the city. An army liaison officer aboard the ''Tuscaloosa'' representing General "Lightning Joe" Collins (VII Corps) expedited communications between different services and commands. The navy-only operation with a three-hour bombardment was shortened to ninety minutes. The targets were limited to those chosen by the army.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bombardment of Cherbourg」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|