Degsy Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 Simple question, were British troops in Cherbourg after the Normandy landings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 Not unless they had gotten lost, or were perhaps specialists in clearing blocked harbours. Why do you ask? Tim (too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 No, but they were there and in St Malo in 1939, the 'Little Dunkirik'. Most troops in the area were American. The german's in the Channel Islands launched a quite succesful raid on the port of Granville in 1944. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted November 8, 2007 Author Share Posted November 8, 2007 Hi Tim. I had never heard of British troops in Cherbourg but have just had a new book by a respected author in which there is a pic claimed to be of Cherbourg showing British troops and vehicles and a large dockyard crane. I am fairly sure it isn't Cherbourg for several reasons, one of which being the crane, easy to destroy and as I am sure you know the Germans did a very thorough job of demoliton of the dock area. There appear to be a number of errors in the book and so far I haven't read any of the text, just skimmed through the photo's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeEnfield Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Hi Tim. I had never heard of British troops in Cherbourg but have just had a new book by a respected author in which there is a pic claimed to be of Cherbourg showing British troops and vehicles and a large dockyard crane. I am fairly sure it isn't Cherbourg for several reasons, one of which being the crane, easy to destroy and as I am sure you know the Germans did a very thorough job of demoliton of the dock area. There appear to be a number of errors in the book and so far I haven't read any of the text, just skimmed through the photo's. Interesting,..................as a matter of interest, who is the author, title of said book ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted November 9, 2007 Author Share Posted November 9, 2007 Andy, I don't think it would be fair to name names until I have had chance to read the book and thouroughly digest it's contents when I will report further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Can you post a scan of the picture from the book. Cherbourg is quite distinctive and i was wondering if we can identify it as somewhere else. Here is a picture of Cherbourg during the clearance. http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/Cherbourg.jpg[/img] As you can see there are a great deal of crawler cranes now on the docks and the Rhino has lots more engineering equipment stuck on top. Lots of heavy engineering equipment and compressors i see so i guess they were still being used in clearance works. This photo was i think taken from the Southern edge of the small dry dock. The guy on the right has a Bell and Howell camera. Quite fancy one of those for Christmas list. Tim (too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 OK. Just stumbled on this picture. http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/cherbourg_background1.jpg[/img] Compare the buildings. Lucky or what. Tim (too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 C'est tres bien! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Merci beacoup Tim (aussi) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted November 9, 2007 Author Share Posted November 9, 2007 I don't have a scanner Tim so no can do. The pic in the book bears no similarity to your pics but it does show one quite distinctive building, the crane is interesting as it is a gantry type with 2 cranes mounted on top. The cranes appear to be able to run along the top of the gantry on rail tracks and to be fitted with railway type buffers. I wondered if the pic could or be Port en Bessin or Ouistreham? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 It could be one of many ports. However i would think that the British would always have attempted to cross the channel at the shortest distance so Dover to the nearest operational port. Many of these ports were of course not really operational until after the war, but the British would have wanted one as far East as possible to reduce the LOC. Cherbourg is to far away to the West. Father says: I landed at Ouistreham when I went to France in 1960 in an Army Landing Craft - we went into the Caen Canal and the Landing Craft turned through 90 degrees in the Canal and put us ashore on the Canal Bank. I don't remember the Port looking anything like the picture! So i guess i need to take a closer look at the photo that you have. Can you send me a PM of the name of the book and i will look it up in my local book shop. Thanks Tim (too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 http://www.ville-cherbourg.fr/uk/tourism_discovery/enjoy_a_walk_in_cherbourg/the_country_of_sea_and_wi/stop_in_the_country_of_se/panoramic_image.asp?mode=popup There is a modern panoramic view of the port at the above link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Thats it. The big building that features on the right of the war time picture, and the middle of the modern picture is the one on the extreme left of the panoramic picture. The body of water is a basin, the level of water within which is controlled by lock gates which are visible. The small dry dock is behind the lock gates and to the left. Interesting that all three photos have tied up so well. Now all we have to do is to identify the location of the mystery photo. Tim (too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeEnfield Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 In Monty's Normandy To The Baltic, while he makes no mention of British Troops, he does say that 'the task of opening the port was energetically tackled by the allied navies,' Will be interested in finding out whose book you've got,............(when you've finished it. :-)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 What about Le Havre? The dockworks there were extensively wrecked too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Thinking about it, the other major ports were German enclaves and did not fall until some time. The Canadians took Calais and I think they took Boulogne, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeEnfield Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Thinking about it, the other major ports were German enclaves and did not fall until some time. The Canadians took Calais and I think they took Boulogne, too. Boulogne on 22nd sept, Calais on 30th sept taken by Canadian 3rd Inf Div. Dieppe was captured unopposed by Canadian 2nd Inf Div on 1st sept. Of course, there was also Antwerp............. fell to Canadian Inf and Brit 11th Armoured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted November 10, 2007 Author Share Posted November 10, 2007 I agree entirely about the other ports, had been thinking about it today whilst doing my Poppy selling stint at the local Tesco and came to the conclusion that it is more likely one of the channel ports rather than Normandy. Tim and Andy, I will send PM's this evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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