Ruins Of German Fort In Liberated Cherboug -- U.S. aerial bombardment and artillery fire destroyed this German fort, one of the last to surrender in Cherboug to the overwhelming American blows that liberated the deep-water port. The fort was one of the installations of the Atlantic Wall which Hitler claimed were impregnable. The allies breached the vaunted defenses on the northern coast of France, June 6, 1944. Allied engineers immediately started clearance and reconstruction of Cherbourg harbor