After the fall of Cherbourg. Captain Robert Kirkpatrick of Cleveland, Ohio (right), reports to Major General Joseph L.

After the fall of Cherbourg. Captain Robert Kirkpatrick of Cleveland, Ohio (right), reports to Major General Joseph L. Collins, commanding officer of the Seventh U.S. Army Corps, standing on the remains of Fort Du Roule, one of the last German defenses to fall before the surrender of Cherbourg June 27, 1944. General Collins presided over the surrender of Lieutenant General Carl Wilhelm von Schlieben, commander of the Cherbourg garrison, and Rear Admiral Hennecke, Sea Defense Commander of Normandy. Announcing the liberation of the French port, Lieutenant General Omar N. Bardley, commander of U.S. ground forces in France, declared: ":It is a pleasure to be able to say to the people of France, 'Here is your first large city to be returned to you."Less than 12 hours after the liberation, American forces handed the city over the Mayor Paul Reynand.