The Cherbourg story.

The Cherbourg story. Cherbourg, the first major Continental port liberated by the Allies, opitomized the pattern of engineering skill which military salvage experts have used to restore Tripoli, Bizerte, Palermo and Naples and make them booming supply centers feeding war material to the Allied advances against the Nazis. For two years, U.S. and British Navy and Army engineers studied photographs and date on Cherbourg and prepared their plans and equipment in England. As soon as the port was liberated June 27, 1944 - three weeks after "D-Day" - they arrived with scores of ships loaded with special equipment. They surveyed the damage done by retreating Germans, found their plans correct. Engineering crows were sped to selected tasks and began the work of reconstructing harbor facilities, repairing rail lines and putting the port to use. In 30 days, Cherbourg was handling more tonnage than it over had in peacetime. These pictures, many of which have just been released by the censors, show how it was done. French civilians and American soldiers work together to repair dock facilities to put Cherbourg port back into operation as swiftly as possible. Evidence of the detailed planning by salvage engineers are the number of concrete mixers, cement, heavy equipment and supplies they brought with them from England to do the reconstruction job.