The story
The 9th Infantry Division, in concert with the 4th and 79th Infantry Divisions, attacked to seize Cherbourg.
The enemy was well fortified and put up fierce resistance.
The 9th Infantry Division oriented on the village of Octeville and several nearby forts on high ground west of the city.
It tightly integrated artillery, air strikes, tanks, engineers and infantry into attacks on one strong point after another as its advance progressed.
By 26 June infantrymen from the division fought their way into the underground command post of the German commander in Cherbourg, Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, and captured him with 800 others.
The division then cleared its sector in house-to-house fighting wherein mines and booby traps proved as great a threat as enemy firepower.
When Cherbourg itself fell, the division turned its attention to reducing strong points around the perimeter bypassed during the advance.
Six thousand holdouts in the Cap de la Hague required 23 a tough three-day battle before they were finally subdued.
There's more to discover
You have arrived at just one small part of Back to Normandy — a personal project dedicated to preserving stories, images, music and memories of the Second World War.
Every record is a doorway to a larger story. Explore Back to Normandy to discover more, or visit Fred Vogels' personal website to learn about the person and the projects behind it.