Deyo's guns silence Cherbourg's batteries; Collins's infantry pushes into the city streets

Hitler had declared Cherbourg a "fortress" and ordered it held at any cost — without the port, he believed the Allied invasion would collapse. By mid-June 1944, U.S. infantry had sealed off the Cotentin Peninsula but stalled at the city's walls, while the Germans furiously demolished the harbor's facilities. On June 25, Rear Admiral Morton Deyo led a combined Anglo-American task force — battleships, cruisers, and destroyers — in a naval bombardment that disabled 22 of 24 assigned gun targets and silenced German batteries long enough for General "Lightning Joe" Collins's VII Corps to push into Cherbourg's city streets. The garrison surrendered four days later…