The Crazy US Soldier that Snuck and Destroyed Hitler's Most Insane Artillery

In the hallowed landscape of Normandy,  France, the Battle of Cherbourg unfolded as a symphony of thundering naval and ground  artillery pummeled the German port defenses. The streets echoed with the rhythmic cadence  of gunfire as American GIs closed in on the strategic port city. Pinned beneath the  gaze of German pillboxes and unforgiving 88-millimeter Flak guns, the Allies faced  German audacity and stiff resistance. Amidst the chaos, Corporal John D. Kelly braved  a hail of machine gun fire

, navigating through enemy defenses with a pole and TNT charges  to destroy a pillbox and save his buddies. Lieutenant Carlos C. Ogden, a fearless leader  from Fairmount, Illinois, confronted a lethal artillery barrage in another sector. Despite his  grievous injuries and a bullet grazing his helmet, Ogden wielded his M1 Garand grenade  launcher and advanced towards an 88-millimeter Flak gun already damaged by one of  his grenades. He aimed to silence it for good. Such was the spirit of the figh

ting  men led by Lightning Joe Collins, one of the youngest commanders in US  military history tasked with capturing the most crucial port the allied troops  required for the liberation of France. The Allied command had been planning to retake  France since 1942, when the United States military joined the fray after the Pearl Harbor attack  of December 1941 at the hands of the Japanese. While coming up with the plan for the invasion  of France, Allied commanders concluded it was of utmost import

ance to secure several  deep-water ports to keep a steady flow of manpower and supplies into Normandy and keep  the invasion going without logistical delays. Without them, equipment and manpower  would have to be delivered to Great Britain and then unpacked before it could  be transferred to shallow-water locations in captured territory in northern France. Cherbourg, a port city in the Cotentin Peninsula, was the largest port in Normandy that  fulfilled the Allied requirements for a deep-water p

ort and was thus critical  for the entire operation's success. Allied planners opted against a direct  landing on the Cotentin Peninsula due to its separation from the main Allied  landings by the flooded Douve River valley, a German measure to impede airborne landings. However, in January 1944, when British Army General Bernard Montgomery assumed the role  of overall land commander, he reintroduced the idea of landing on the Cotentin peninsula. This decision aimed to broaden the front, preventi

ng the invaders from being  confined to a narrow lodgment and facilitating Cherbourg's swift capture. While the bulk of the Allied troops would land at different sectors for D-Day, the 4th  Infantry Division and the 82nd and the 101st Airborne Divisions were tasked with one  single objective: set the stage for the conquest of Cherbourg and the Cotentin Peninsula. Seasoned warrior, American General Joseph Lawton Collins, commander of the US Army VII Corps,  was tasked with capturing Cherbourg. It

was no easy task. If Lightning Joe Collins  had failed to capture the port in time, the Normandy Invasion could have resulted  in an utter failure for the Allied forces. Joseph Lawton Collins was a veteran United  States Army officer. Also known as Lightning Joe, he had served during World War 1 with distinction  and became one of the 280,000 citizens from Louisiana who joined the armed forces in 1941  and 1942 to fight the Japanese and Germans. Despite being a difficult task, the capture  of C

herbourg fell under capable hands, and supreme leader Eisenhower knew it.  Lightning Joe had made a name for himself in the Pacific Theatre as the commander of the  25th Infantry, the Tropic Lightning Division. Collins’s men had fought at Oahu, Guadalcanal,  and New Georgia between 1942 and 1943 with the desperation of hungry wolves. They had  achieved victory against the Empire of Japan through their sweat and blood. At just 46, Lightning Joe became the youngest division commander of the United

  States Army. The Catholic leader earned the respect of his peers thanks to his aggressive  and dashing operations against the enemy. After his campaigns in the Pacific, Collins was  called to the European Theatre by Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, where his unique form of  commanding was needed to defeat the Wehrmacht. He was given command of the VII Corps, instantly  taking him past another milestone. He became the youngest corps commander in the US Army at age 47. After familiarizing hi

mself with his men, Lightning Joe got ready for D-Day. On June 6,  1944, the commander of the VII Corps stayed aboard USS Bayfield, the flagship for Utah Beach,  while his men attacked the German defenses. The US 82nd and 101st paratroopers landed at the  Cotentin Peninsula during the early hours of the Normandy Invasion to capture the cherished port  of Cherbourg. The troopers quickly arrested and secured the routes the VII Corps would use from  Utah to Cherbourg to begin the daunting operation

. Lightning Joe went ashore the next day and  met with Major General Matthew Ridgway, commander of the 82nd Airborne and an  old classmate of his, as the 4th, 9th, 79th, and 90th Infantry Divisions  began marching towards Cherbourg. The German garrison at the port of Cherbourg  was under General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, a World War 1 veteran and a seasoned Panzer  commander since the Invasion of France in 1940. Von Schlieben had fought at both the Western  and Eastern Fronts with determinatio

n since the beginning of the war after the Battle of  Kursk and was tasked with commanding the 709th Static Infantry Division in Normandy, France. On June 23, General von Schlieben commanded the entire Cherbourg Fortress, relieving General  Major Robert Sattler of the task. Meanwhile, Lightning Joe and his men advanced  restlessly towards the objective. Von Schlieben urgently requested air support  and reinforcements by air or sea. The 15th Parachute Regiment of Fallschirmjägers was  alerted to

move from Saint-Malo to Cherbourg, but transportation was unavailable. Von Schlieben had to make do with a mix of personnel, battered units, and dwindling  ammunition. The Fuhrer then ordered Cherbourg to become a fortress to be defended at all costs. Despite determined resistance, the German garrison could not stop the steady progress of the VII  Corps on June 22 and 23. In the final phase, Lightning Joe’s three infantry divisions  reduced the remaining solid points, seized the last ground comm

anding the  port, and closed in on the battered city. On June 24, General Collins' orders maintained  the previously outlined plans. Flank regiments contained the enemy in the northeast and  northwest, while others coordinated attacks on Octeville and the eastern front. The 79th Division aimed to capture the strong point at la Mare a Canards  through a double envelopment following a bombing attack. Other major strong points  were also slated for aerial incursions. Lightning Joe’s men slowly made

their  way into the German emplacements with the support of fighter-bomber aircraft and  heavy artillery pieces. Late in the day, Collins judged his troops were ready to march  straight into the port with a swift attack. He called in the support of the US Navy  for additional firepower to support the ground advance. Before the attack, Von  Schlieben received a request for surrender, but following Hitler’s orders, his honor, and that  of his men, he refused, and the battle resumed. His battered

German troops were in for  incessant and lethal naval barrages. While Lightning Joe Collins’ VII Corps  attacked the German fortifications from the rear, US Navy and British Royal Navy ships  approached the Cotentin Peninsula to support the ground troops with a naval bombardment. Task Group 129.2 from the Twelfth Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Morton Deyo,  arrived on the coast on June 25, 1944, to suppress the coastal batteries the Germans were  planning to use against the American in

fantry. The task force immediately got to work in  two battle groups. One bombarded German fortifications, while the other  neutralized the enemy batteries. Accompanying British ships began sweeping lanes  ahead in search of German mines. The German response was fierce. The shore batteries opened  fire against the surface vessels, leading the Navy to call in the support of General Pete Quesadas’s  IX Army Air Force to attack the enemy positions. The Allies' Ground, sea, and air assets worked  to

gether to hammer the Germans. Despite the overwhelming Anglo-American superiority, the  defenders held their ground and counterattacked. Army air-controlled gunnery tore apart  panzers close to the VII Corps with swift, decisive blows. Dozens of German pillboxes  crumbled under the Navy’s wrath and the lethal explosive shells of the naval guns. Battery Hamburg and other batteries northeast of the port retaliated against the  minesweepers and other destroyers. They roared revenge and hit several

ships, knocking out  the radar from destroyer O’Brien and severely damaging three minesweepers and destroyers. Spitfires and Grummans were called to silence the German guns but were scattered by accurate  Flak fire. The imposing USS Texas and Arkansas unleashed several salvos against Battery  Hamburg and her four 9-inch guns to no avail. The German gunners waited patiently until the  US ships were within range. When they did, they fired mercilessly. One shell struck the  conning tower of Texas,

leading to 11 casualties. In return, the USS Texas scored a direct hit  in Hamburg, removing one of the reinforced gun emplacements. The Wehrmacht’s resistance was  brave and heroic, but the Germans were surrounded from all fronts, and there was no escape. Generals Dollmann and Von Schlieben contemplated a negotiated surrender, but the suggestion,  as expected, was rejected by Hitler. The port of Cherbourg was a fortress and  had to be defended until the last man. Although the German troops were

exhausted,  resistance continued. American troops were received with intense small-arms  fire from positions behind a creek bed and the surviving pillboxes. Still, the American GIs eventually advanced through the inner fortress  with the use of Bangalore torpedoes and explosives. When heavy machine gun fire  pinned Company E, 23-year-old Corporal John D. Kelly volunteered to take down the enemy  MG's nest. Kelly slid under enemy fire with a ten-foot pole carrying a 15-pound TNT charge. Despite

the first charge having no effect, he remained undeterred. Returning for another  charge, Kelly approached the German pillbox and successfully blew off the fortification.  Subsequently, Kelly used another charge to blow open the pillbox's back and hurl grenades inside. The few surviving Germans surrendered in the aftermath of the explosions.  Due to his selfless actions, Kelly would earn a posthumous Medal of Honor. Nearby, in a fierce encounter, Company K of the 3rd Battalion faced another chal

lenge. Pinned down  by machine guns and imposing German 88-millimeter Flak guns, 1st Lieutenant Carlos C. Ogden  decided to join the fray and saved his men. With a rifle grenade launcher for his M1  Garand, Ogden approached the emplacements alone. Despite a bullet severely injuring  his head after ricocheting off his helmet, Ogden pressed forward with determination. The GI calmly aimed his rifle grenade launcher and fired with precision, shattering  the enemy Flak and eliminating most of the cre

w. Undeterred by a second wound, Ogden then  advanced towards the German machine gun nests, neutralizing them with well-aimed grenades. The Lieutenant’s heroic actions leading to the garrison's surrender that evening  earned him the Medal of Honor. Food, supplies, and ammunition began to run out  for the German garrison, but they kept resisting with admirable spirit. Lightning Joe’s troops  kept pushing the enemy into submission with the combined arms of air, sea, and ground assets. On June 26,

the British elite troops of No. 30 Commando assaulted Octeville and captured a  Kriegsmarine unit of over 500 men. This paved the way for the 79th Division’s fearsome attack  against the heavily defended Fort du Roule. Standing in a steep rock promontory, the fort  provided the Germans with an excellent view of the harbor, but it had already been pummeled  by air and sea bombardments. The American soldiers broke through on the west side after  making holes with bazookas and pole charges. Realizi

ng that resistance was futile  once the fort was breached, Generals von Schlieben and Dollmann surrendered on June  29 to Lightning Joe’s men. With the port secure, Allied logistics were guaranteed safe passage  for the success of France’s liberation. Lightning Joe would continue leading the VII Corps  until the war's end and would stay in the Army throughout the Korean War before retiring in 1956. Lightning Joe Collins was awarded three Army Distinguished Service Medals and two Silver Stars  am

ong his many recognitions. He was credited with destroying 14 German divisions during his  Western Theatre of World War 2 service.