Biddle (CG 34) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 59 text:

' ' ' r Cherbourg Cherbourg is on the tip of the C ontentin Peninsula (235 miles southeast is Paris) and beaches south of the city were the sight of the Allied invasion in World War II. Passenger traffic is the predominant activity of the port but by no means overshadows the importance of coal and petroleum, the shipping of quarried stone or the fishing industry. The surrounding Normandy countryside is devoted almost exclusively to agri- culture; its green and rolling terrain presents a contrast to the town. The inhab- itants of the region are conservative by nature and describe themselves as Norman as distinguished from the more homogeneous French. Cherbourg supposedly occupies the site of an ancient Roman trading station, but little is known about its origins. The peninsula appears to have been used by prehistoric traders of the Bronze Age as a stepping off place for the British Isles. In the Ninth Century it was conquered and held by the Vikings. Later, it was ruled by Norman Dukes. William the Conquerer provided it with a hospital and church. Henry II of England, on several occasions, chose it as his residence. It attained military importance under Phillip Augustus and for several centuries shifted back and forth between French and British rule. Cherbourg was captured from the Germans by the American 7th Corps on June 27th, 1944. Preceding this, the most difficult of the Normandy beachheads was established on Omaha Beach at 6:30 a.m. June 6th by the First American Infantry Division. The Fourth American Infantry Division landed at Utah Beach at the same time on the same day. The Museum of the American Invasion of Utah Beach presents a projection of slides with the recorded voices of American and German soldiers who lived through the invasion. In Arromanches at the Invasion Museum there is a diorama and a Royal Navy film of the invasion, which are an over- whelming experience. The most famous sight off the coast of Normandy, just at the point where it joins the peninsula of Brittany, is the island monastery of Mont Saint Michel Marvel of the Occident. It is an extraordinary Gothic abbey which crowns the pinnacle of a steep rock. Unique and dramatic in aspect, it is generally regarded as one of the most picturesque sights in the world. And of course there is Paris. One of the most beautiful, largest and oldest among the great cities of the world. Paris is the cultural, administrative, commer- cial, and industrial center of France, the hub of both national and international travel. It is crowded with the relics of a long and vigorous past, which range from ancient Roman catacombs to the soaring steel shaft of the Eiffel Tower. Specifically there is the Arc de Triomphe, in the most fashionable and elegant region of the city. Stretching east is the wide and sracious Champs Elysees, one of the most magnificent and fashionable streets in the world. On the islands in the center of the Seine River is the most renowned of all great buildings of Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral, one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in France. There are many other interesting points too numerous to mention.