After weeks of fighting, Cherbourg capitulated to U.S. forces on June 26, 1944—a strategically decisive step, as the port was urgently needed for supplying Allied forces in Normandy. The civilian population welcomed the liberators with flowers, while the city still bore visible traces of the preceding combat. Jack Lieb documented these greeting scenes as part of his Cherbourg sequence, which follows the landing at Utah Beach in his color film.