Qualla: Bombardment of Cherbourg

Bombardment of Cherbourg: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Just before noon on 25 June 1944, the battleship USS Texas was steering hard to starboard off the Norman coast when a 280-millimetre shell from the German Battery Hamburg punched through her hull and came to rest beside a sailor's bunk. The shell did not explode. It had been manufactured by slave labour somewhere in the Reich, and like a great many German shells fired that day, it was a dud. Across the task force, similar near-disasters were unfolding minute by minute. A shell jammed against the anchor chain of the destroyer USS Laffey was pried loose by the damage control party and tossed overboard. The men of US Task Force 129 came home that night because of German manufacturing failures - and because they had managed, between dud hits and smoke screens, to silence enough of the guns above Cherbourg for the army to break into the city.

Read more: Bombardment of Cherbourg on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Bombardment of Cherbourg: What Cherbourg Was Worth

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Cherbourg in June 1944 was the most heavily fortified coastal city in northwestern Europe. Twenty casemated coastal batteries ringed the city - massive concrete bunkers with steel and reinforced ceilings several feet thick, some armed with naval-calibre guns that could be trained...

Read more: Bombardment of Cherbourg on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Bombardment of Cherbourg: Two Battle Groups

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Task Force 129 went to sea in two groups. Battle Group 1 under Deyo himself, flying his flag from the New Orleans-class cruiser USS Tuscaloosa, was assigned the inner harbour forts and the western approaches. With him came a battleship, more cruisers and six destroyers. Battle Gr...

Read more: Bombardment of Cherbourg on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Bombardment of Cherbourg: Duel at Battery Hamburg

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. USS Arkansas opened fire on Battery Hamburg first, using a fire control system already two world wars old. Her salvos did no visible damage. As Battle Group 2 worked closer, the German guns at Hamburg straddled the minesweepers and bracketed the destroyers. USS Barton took a rico...

Read more: Bombardment of Cherbourg on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Bombardment of Cherbourg: The Small Ships Did the Work

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The thing that surprised everyone was that the big ships were not actually the most useful. The battleships disabled 22 of their 24 assigned targets but destroyed none of them - the casemates were simply too thick for direct hits to penetrate, and infantry had to go in afterwards...

Read more: Bombardment of Cherbourg on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Bombardment of Cherbourg: What It Did and Did Not Do

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Eisenhower wrote later that 'the final assault was materially assisted by heavy and accurate naval gunfire'. Von Schlieben told Rommel that further resistance was useless in part because of the 'heavy fire from the sea'. Admiral Theodor Krancke, in his war diary, called it 'a nav...

Read more: Bombardment of Cherbourg on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain