Freed forced labourers, Cherbourg Arsenal.

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In this photo taken on the 28th of June 2 days after the fall of Cherbourg these Soviet citizens celebrate their new found freedom. They would have been driven from their homes and forced into the Organisation Todt, the German forced and slave labour orgranisation that, among other things, largely built the Atlantic Wall, V1 launch sites and the massive bomb proof U-Boat pens in French ports.

Tragically their happiness was to be short lived, despite comitting a crime no worse than living in areas that their armed forces failed to defend effectively instead of being allowed to go home once they had been repatriated to the USSR they were banished directly to Siberian Gulags, many never to return.

Similar scenes in p011787 and p011788.