V-MAIL
438th AAA AW BN
APO 403 % Postmaster, N.Y.
France
26 June 1600
Dearest Sweetheart –
If this looks messy and wrinkled, blame it on the rain and darkness. All day I’ve been wanting to take a few minutes off to write you but have been unable to. I almost gave up the idea – but I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t write a few lines at least, dear.
Things are going along pretty well and the news is good. Today was a rather blue Monday, though, probably because of the weather. But chalk off another day, darling. It’s one less we have to go.
Will have to stop now Sweetheart because it’s getting practically impossible to write any longer. Love to the folks – and my everlasting love to you, dearest
Greg
* TIDBIT *
about The VII Corps and the Cherbourg Campaign - Part 7
about The VII Corps and the Cherbourg Campaign - Part 7
The 79th and 9th Divisions virtually cleared the city on 26 June. Elements of the 313th Infantry reached the beach in their sector by 0800. The 314th was delayed by fire from the left but reached the beach by mid-afternoon. Fighting became doubly difficult for the Americans in the city when the guns in the lower levels of Fort du Roule began firing on them in the afternoon. Only the top level of the fort had been cleared the preceding day. The 2d Battalion of the 314th Infantry had remained on the lid of the fort during the night, and on the morning of the 26th resumed their efforts to reduce the remainder of the fort. This task occupied the entire day.
There was no way of reaching the lower levels of the fort from the top. The reduction of the fort, therefore, became primarily a matter of finding ways to place demolitions in the lower levels. Several charges were lowered through the ventilating shafts and packages of TNT on wires or ropes were let down the sides of the fort to the level of the gun embrasures and set off by means of a trigger device. More successful was the exploit of a demolitions team which made a path around the precipitous west side of the fort and blasted one of the tunnel mouths with pole charges and bazookas. Meanwhile antitank guns down in the city were turned against the embrasures. Resistance in the two lower levels finally came to an end early in the evening, placing Fort du Roule entirely in American hands. The fort yielded several hundred prisoners.
To the southwest the 315th Infantry took 2,200 prisoners. In the meantime, the 47th and 39th Infantry Regiments of the 9th Division fought their way through the western half of Cherbourg, the most strongly defended portion of the city. Both the 2d and 3d Battalions of the 39th Infantry moved down the ridge in the morning. Their objectives were Octeville and the Cherbourg area lying between the 47th Infantry and the Divette River. A captured German reported that General von Schlieben, the commander of the Cherbourg Fortress, was in an underground shelter in Rue St. Sauveur, just beyond Octeville.
By mid-afternoon Company E and Company F had reached von Schlieben's shelter. After covering the tunnel entrances with machine-gun fire, a prisoner was sent down to ask for the fort's surrender. When surrender was refused, tank destroyers began to fire directly into two of the tunnel's three entrances and preparations were begun to demolish the stronghold with TNT.
An article in Time, dated 10 July 1944, described the scene this way:
After the surrender was made to General Eddy of the 9th Infantry Division, Eddy drove his captives in his command car to headquarters. By radio he notified Major General Joseph Lawton Collins, VII Corps commander, who arrived and demanded that von Schlieben surrender the whole Cherbourg garrison. The fortress commander refused, however, adding that communications were so bad that he could not ask the others to surrender even if he wanted to. When General Collins offered to provide the means of communication von Schlieben still declined.
All of the following photos belong to Photosnormandie's Flickr Photostream. First, they show the white flag of surrender, followed by soldiers exiting the tunnel. Last, von Schlieben is shown with General Eddy and then Major General Collins.
There was no way of reaching the lower levels of the fort from the top. The reduction of the fort, therefore, became primarily a matter of finding ways to place demolitions in the lower levels. Several charges were lowered through the ventilating shafts and packages of TNT on wires or ropes were let down the sides of the fort to the level of the gun embrasures and set off by means of a trigger device. More successful was the exploit of a demolitions team which made a path around the precipitous west side of the fort and blasted one of the tunnel mouths with pole charges and bazookas. Meanwhile antitank guns down in the city were turned against the embrasures. Resistance in the two lower levels finally came to an end early in the evening, placing Fort du Roule entirely in American hands. The fort yielded several hundred prisoners.
To the southwest the 315th Infantry took 2,200 prisoners. In the meantime, the 47th and 39th Infantry Regiments of the 9th Division fought their way through the western half of Cherbourg, the most strongly defended portion of the city. Both the 2d and 3d Battalions of the 39th Infantry moved down the ridge in the morning. Their objectives were Octeville and the Cherbourg area lying between the 47th Infantry and the Divette River. A captured German reported that General von Schlieben, the commander of the Cherbourg Fortress, was in an underground shelter in Rue St. Sauveur, just beyond Octeville.
By mid-afternoon Company E and Company F had reached von Schlieben's shelter. After covering the tunnel entrances with machine-gun fire, a prisoner was sent down to ask for the fort's surrender. When surrender was refused, tank destroyers began to fire directly into two of the tunnel's three entrances and preparations were begun to demolish the stronghold with TNT.
An article in Time, dated 10 July 1944, described the scene this way:
Soon a white flag appeared at the tunnel's mouth. The German lieutenant who held it stepped stiffly into the open. He turned right and dipped the flag, turned left and dipped the flag, faced General Eddy and dipped the flag. It was all very precise and formal. Eddy beckoned him to come over.
The lieutenant presented the compliments of Lieut. General Karl Wilhelm Dietrich von Schlieben, military commander of Cherbourg, and of Rear Admiral Walter Hennecke, naval commander, and asked that an officer be sent to the tunnel to conduct them out to surrender. The Germans in the tunnel did not wait for the conducting officer. A stream of them poured out. Their commander was with them.
Six feet three, black-helmeted, wearing the Iron Cross at his throat, von Schlieben was a beaten man. His flabby, worried face was a tired grey; his grey-green greatcoat was mud-splotched and a mass of wrinkles. The starch had gone out of both the man and his clothes.
The lieutenant presented the compliments of Lieut. General Karl Wilhelm Dietrich von Schlieben, military commander of Cherbourg, and of Rear Admiral Walter Hennecke, naval commander, and asked that an officer be sent to the tunnel to conduct them out to surrender. The Germans in the tunnel did not wait for the conducting officer. A stream of them poured out. Their commander was with them.
Six feet three, black-helmeted, wearing the Iron Cross at his throat, von Schlieben was a beaten man. His flabby, worried face was a tired grey; his grey-green greatcoat was mud-splotched and a mass of wrinkles. The starch had gone out of both the man and his clothes.
After the surrender was made to General Eddy of the 9th Infantry Division, Eddy drove his captives in his command car to headquarters. By radio he notified Major General Joseph Lawton Collins, VII Corps commander, who arrived and demanded that von Schlieben surrender the whole Cherbourg garrison. The fortress commander refused, however, adding that communications were so bad that he could not ask the others to surrender even if he wanted to. When General Collins offered to provide the means of communication von Schlieben still declined.
All of the following photos belong to Photosnormandie's Flickr Photostream. First, they show the white flag of surrender, followed by soldiers exiting the tunnel. Last, von Schlieben is shown with General Eddy and then Major General Collins.
CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE
