Canadian Military History
Volume 19 Issue 2 Article 3
2010
Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
Stephen A. Bourque
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh
Part of the Military History Commons
Recommended Citation Stephen A. Bourque "Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day." Canadian Military History 19, 2 (2010)
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
Stephen A. Bourque
n the early morning hours of the German border. Meanwhile, I6 June 1944, Royal Air Force (RAF) Abstract: Standard accounts of the overhead, heavy bombers pounded Bomber Command, including 13 Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June the beaches and then resumed 1944 usually focus on the combatant’s Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) experience. These narratives describe, the Combined Bomber Offensive squadrons with No.6 Group, began in detail, the role of British, Canadian, into the heart of the Third Reich, the Allied invasion of Normandy. American, and even German military destroying the cities and factories They attacked six coastal artillery units. The British glider and airborne that fuelled the German war effort. batteries located from just south- landings to the east, the divisional Today, bookshelves groan under the assaults on the five beaches, and the east of Cherbourg to the east of American airborne landings to the west, weight of histories that generally tell the invasion zone near Cabourg. and the ultimate breakouts near Caen this story from the Anglo-American Called Operation Flashlamp, it was and Saint-Lô define Operation Overlord point of view, with some attempt to the largest RAF bomber operation for most historians and general readers. include the Germans in the story.4 This article challenges that conventional of the war to date and it took the Most of these studies glorify the narrative by introducing the perspective Lancaster and Halifax bombers about of French citizens who experienced 6 performance of this or that unit or six hours to complete the mission. June under the bombs of RAF Bomber the decisions of a particular general There was no pretence of precision Command and the US Eighth Air Force. showing why he was the key to the as approximately 100 heavy bombers The bombing of Saint-Lô and Lisieux Allied success. In the early years of are just two examples of the massive attacked each of these four-gun the twenty-first century, Frenchmen bombing campaign that remain today batteries with between 500 and 600 part of the French perspective on the and Anglo-Saxons alike portray the tons of munitions.1 Within two hours Second World War. advance across France, la voie de la of Bomber Command’s departure, liberté, as a triumphant procession. bombers from the United States Although authors continue Certainly, that was the message of Eighth and Ninth Air Forces were writing books about D-Day, the Ronald Reagan’s famous speech in over their coastal targets. In some Allied invasion of Normandy, and the 1980s that set the tone for most cases they added a second strike at the campaign in France, most readers American’s understanding of the some of the artillery positions that the probably consider it essentially a invasion and its aftermath.5 RAF had just hit.2 With the ground complete narrative. The standard Yet, this account is not the whole troops moving to the shore, the 21st account essentially tells the story of story. In train stations, harbours, Army Group staff ordered the heavy the brave Anglo-Americans forces and villages across France, there bombers to shift inland, to attack that landed on the Norman coast in are small memorials and plaques, their next set of targets: 14 French June, defeated Rommel’s German such as an impressive one in Metz towns well beyond the beaches. The defenders, and secured a bridgehead. commemorating those railroad bombers’ tasks were to delay the After hard-fought engagements workers killed by Allied bombings movement of German operational near the coast, around Cherbourg, during the war.6 Although in the reserves toward the coast and the and in the bocage, American armor first decade of the new century fragile Allied beachhead. They were units pierced the Nazi defensive the French civilians seem to have to do this by destroying bridges over line near Saint-Lô. After eliminating forgotten these events, Eric Alary the rivers and by turning the centres the German troop concentration and other French historians have of these ancient towns into rubble. In near Falaise, the American and begun looking at this part of the the process, they killed and wounded Commonwealth armies joined in a war in more detail and conclude thousands of French civilians.3 massive sweep toward Paris and that American and British bombers
Published© Canadian by Scholars Military Commons History @, Laurier,Volume 2010 19, Number 2, Spring 2010, pp.25-40. 25 1
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 25 6/15/2010 8:39:40 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3 Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Centre (CFJIC) PL 30780 Joint Imagery Centre (CFJIC) Canadian Forces
A single Halifax from 431 Squadron RCAF is photographed attacking a target in France on 25 June 1944.
killed approximately 60,000 French of smoking rubble.” On the day treasures reduced to rubble as a result civilians, and destroyed or seriously the Allies invaded the Continent, of the Allied air attack in support of damaged entire cities and towns in 6 June, Allied planes had bombed Operation Overlord.10 the process of “liberating” the French the power plant and railroad station Yet, we find very little written in people.7 More sensational and public and then made concentrated and English on this bombing campaign oriented is Eddy Florentin’s Quand le repeated attacks that seemed to the and few historians, even social Alliés bombardaient la France, 1940-1945 inhabitants to have been motivated historians, have an appreciation (When the Allies bombarded France), by the sole intention of destroying for either the magnitude of this originally published in 1997. While the city. Almost 800 civilians lay dead assault or its effect on the French Florentin’s work has some flaws in under the ruins by the morning of 7 civilian population. Most Anglo- specific numbers and interpretation, June, and Allied bombers returned American authors have either ignored his overall thesis is accurate: Allied every day for a week to increase the the problem of Allied bombing bombers pulverized towns and devastation.9 or followed the path blazed by cities, often without warning and Cornelius Ryan in the late 1950s and catching French civilians generally But Saint-Lô was not alone. In addition ignored the fate of those who lived unprepared for the assault.8 to attacks along the beach before the on the ground and the role of heavy One of the few American invasion and hundreds of attacks by bombers in the campaign, other historians to acknowledge the aerial smaller aircraft, Allied civilian and than commenting on the ineffective destruction of these cities was Martin military leaders selected more than bombing assault on the beach.11 Blumenson, who saw much of this a dozen other cities and towns in the The commanders, General Dwight landscape first-hand during the three departments of La Manche, Eisenhower, Field Marshal Bernard campaign. He opens his chapter on L’Orne, and Calvados for destruction. Montgomery, and Air Chief Marshal the battle for Saint-Lô with: As a result, by the end of 7 June, Sir Arthur Tedder, have little to say the day after the actual landings, at about this part of the operation, other By the middle of June 1944 this once least 8,500 French civilians lay dead, than the bombing on the beach.12 “charming and serene little city” many more thousands wounded, Aviation historians almost totally had become “no more than a heap and ancient towns and their historic ignore the bombing of France and
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/326 2
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 26 6/15/2010 8:39:40 AM : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
concentrate on the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany and the transportation plan over the major rivers.13 Even the massive official history of the US Army Air Forces in World War II devotes only one superficial paragraph to this massive bombing effort, which actually lasted 14 until 17 June. Yet through 1944, AC 51591 Photo US Air Force almost half of all bombs dropped by Allied bombers were on France, not Germany, as bombing enthusiasts are prone to argue.15 Not until William I. Hitchcock’s recent The Bitter Road to Freedom
Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Centre (CFJIC) PL 30780 Joint Imagery Centre (CFJIC) Canadian Forces has this massive bombing assault received any serious scholarly discussion in English.16 In addition to Hitchcock’s work, other English- speaking scholars are beginning to discuss the underside of this liberation. Publishing almost simultaneously with Hitchcock, Andrew Knapp at the University of Reading and its Centre for Advanced Study of French History has begun to systematically expose this hidden aspect of the campaign in Europe.17 French historian Olivier Wieviorka’s Normandy, recently translated into English, provides a brief overview of the bombing campaign in relation to the landing strategy, but few details to distract readers from the overall theme of his book.18 These efforts, however, are all still relatively recent, and certainly reflect a “new US Air Force Photo 51771 AC 51771 Photo US Air Force perspective” on the Second World War. Caen, the most important city in Normandy and the centre of road and rail traffic, is the focus of most of these recent narratives. The Allied air forces bombed Caen on 6 and 7 June. Attacks, they go far beyond the definition of raids, hit the city at 1330 hours, 1630 hours, and the following morning at 0230 hours. The city’s centre was destroyed and these attacks killed between six and eight hundred citizens and refugees.19 And, as readers of this journal know, Aircraft of the US Eighth Air Force attack targets in France in support of Operation Overlord. Top: A B-17 Flying Fortress attacks the heavily-defended French port Caen’s agony was not over. For a of Boulogne on 5 June 1944; Bottom: Smoke obscures much of the airfield at month British and Canadian forces Châteaudun, France during a raid by B-24 Liberators on 14 June 1944.
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2010 27 3
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 27 6/15/2010 8:39:41 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3
sparred with the strong but desperate to interdict reinforcements and German forces. On 7 July the heavy Lisieux supplies. In April the 12th SS Hitler bombers again returned to set the Youth Panzer Division, had moved stage for Operation Charnwood by isieux is a small city on the into the area. Its central location and bombing the northern suburbs. Two Lmain route from Paris, 65 developed road network allowed days later, the 3rd Canadian Infantry kilometres east of Caen. It rests on the division to consolidate rapidly Division moved into the city, north the east bank of the Touques River, and move either toward the Norman of the Orne River. Not until 20 July, a narrow waterway a little more beaches or more likely, in the view following Operation Goodwood and than 100 kilometres in length, with of the German senior commanders, yet another attack by heavy bombers, two bridges for motor vehicles and north toward the Pas de Calais would the remains of this once proud another railway bridge moving region where they expected the main city be free of German forces.20 through the town. By 1939 it was invasion. Only a few hours from the This article examines the best known as the home to Saint beaches, this unit could cause havoc destruction of two other cities Thérèse, a devout young lady who if it arrived before the Allied forces on D-Day: Lisieux and Saint-Lô. died in 1897, only 24 years old, and were ready to receive it.24 To prevent Lisieux’s war experience is generally canonized by popular demand in this movement, Allied army planners unknown to most North Americans, 1925.21 In 1944 one of the helicopter’s identified three choke points in the except those British and Canadian early inventors, Paul Cornu, the first city, consisting of bridges and stone soldiers who fought their way to achieve free flight while carrying buildings, on the west side of the through the German defences during a passenger in 1907, still lived there.22 Touques River, and directed that they the campaign. Saint-Lô, on the other Its most important historical site was be destroyed to prevent the enemy hand, is one of the most famous cities the ancient Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, from using this main route.25 of the campaign, as the site of another which its citizens began constructing Since the beginning of 1944, massive bombing which opened the in 1170 and finished it in the 13th L isieux’s citizens had been hole through which General Omar century. On the eve of the German anticipating the invasion. Few Bradley’s forces broke into the open invasion, it had approximately 15,000 suspected that their city would in Operation Cobra. Unfortunately, inhabitants.23 immediately become part of the few English-speaking students of the The most direct route for German drama.26 Monday, 5 June, was very Normandy Campaign can describe units moving to Normandy from calm and there were only a few Allied what happened to these ancient cities the north or from Paris was through aircraft in the air. The citizens went to on 6 and 7 June. Lisieux, making it a natural place bed as usual, only to be awakened in US Air Force Photo 60597 AC 60597 Photo US Air Force
The original caption to this US Air Force photos reads: “German installations at Caen are bombed on 7 June 1944, leaving fires burning as shown.” The intended target may have been German installations, but an attack on the centre of a major city will inevitably impact its civilian population. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/328 4
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 28 6/15/2010 8:39:41 AM : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
This is a facsimile of a leaflet dropped by the Allies warning French civilians to evacuate their cities. It reads: ALLIED LEAFLET Dropped in a very inaccurate way the day before the strategic bombardments Urgent message from the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces TO THE INHABITANTS OF THIS CITY So that the common enemy is overcome, the Allied Air Forces will attack all transportation hubs and all the ways and means of communication vital to the enemy. Orders to this end have been given You who read this leaflet, you are in or near to a major centre essential to the enemy for the movement of its troops and materiel. The vital objective close to you will be attacked without delay. There is an urgent need for you to leave the zone of danger where you are with your family for a few days. Do not clog up the roads. Disperse to the countryside as much as possible. LEAVE AT ONCE! YOU DO NOT HAVE A MINUTE TO LOSE!
the middle of the night by an intense, distant, cannonade. Coming from the to drop their direction of the coast, it was obvious bombs on the city. that the invasion had begun. As dawn The bombardiers, however, arrived, the sky was full of aircraft could not locate their targets through and sounds of the fighting increased the cloud cover and turned back to in intensity. The Lexoviens, as they are England.29 As the morning turned Lisieux before sunset. Around 2000 called, poured into the streets looking into afternoon, the citizens heard hours, 72 B-24 Liberators crossed the for details. Rumors, such as false less from the beaches, and the firing English Channel and flew towards reports that the Allies had already was not quite as loud and more the city. This time, since the leaders captured both Honfleur and Caen, intermittent. Allied aircraft, primarily expected that the cloud cover would circulated among the crowd. Few fighter-bombers, flew over the town prohibit any precision, they ordered had radios, since the Germans had and sometimes machine-gunned the the crews to use “overcast bombing confiscated them earlier, and there German convoys along Route 13. techniques,” a euphemism for area was no way to verify the news.27 Watching these events, the citizens bombing, without regard to either Before the sun came up, now waited with foreboding that the accuracy or civilian casualties. To reconnaissance units from the 12th cannonade would surely come their make accuracy more problematic, SS Panzer Division passed through way.30 increasingly bad weather forced the the centre of the city, heading west Allied commanders were not aircraft to fly higher than anticipated,
US Air Force Photo 60597 AC 60597 Photo US Air Force toward the sounds of the fighting. happy that the main east-west now up to 23,000 or 24,000 feet. Unit commanders noted the citizen’s highway was still open on the Still, many aircraft were unable to apparent calm, and, in spite of afternoon of 6 June. They knew find either this or any target, and the obvious sounds of war, they that the 12th SS Panzer was on the headed back to England. However, appeared to be beginning the day as if move and that Hitler had ordered 25 B-24s fought through the weather it was just like any other. The rumble SS General Joseph (Sepp) Dietrich, and headed for Lisieux intent on of battle continued all morning commander of the 1 SS Panzer Corps, dropping their 73 tons of explosives and Allied aircraft seemed to be to throw the invaders “back into the on their assigned objective.32 everywhere above the clouds.28 No sea.”31 Determined to stop German At 2020 hours, the Liberator one on the ground realized that at units from heading to the front, they squadrons appeared over the city 0900 hours 81 B-17 Flying Fortress directed the bombers to repeat the centre and began dropping their aircraft were overhead and prepared aborted mission again and to strike munitions, just as the citizens sat
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2010 29 5
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 29 6/15/2010 8:39:41 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3 Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies (LCMSDS) Air Photo Collection 138/4281 Air Photo Military and Disarmament Studies (LCMSDS) Laurier Centre for Strategic
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/330 6
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 30 6/15/2010 8:39:42 AM : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
down for their evening meals and several hours. His neighbor rescued young children went to bed.33 The J. P. and brought him across the street streets were empty, as the evening to an undamaged house. Students curfew had just taken place, and from the local seminary, looking for almost everyone was at home. Young survivors, carried him to the local Gerald Hanocque had just climbed hospital. Delirious, he remembers into his bed when he heard the arguing with the nurses who were sound of the Allied aircraft in the cutting his socks off his mangled leg, sky. He was not concerned, as he just before they amputated it. When had heard this sound many times he awoke again he was in the hospital before. Suddenly, bombs began along with his wounded sister. Both falling very close to his house. He ran of his parents were dead, he was to his window and saw the nearby missing a leg, and his house was hospital engulfed in a huge cloud of burnt to the ground. Nothing was smoke. Then a new barrage of bombs left.35 hit and windows began blowing out Along with his parents, at least and walls shook violently. Then it 40 Lexoviens were dead with many was over. The attack shattered all more wounded. Madame Andrée the windows in his home but he was Petit, who ran a small cafe on the still alive. He helped his father clean main road to Caen, in the community up the mess and began patching of Saint-Désir just west of the city, holes in the walls and covering the remembered that after the bombing missing windows. So far, he had been many people asked her what they relatively lucky.34 should do? Should they stay? Leave? Not so fortunate was six-year- With German troops moving down old J.P. Cordier. Writing 40 years the highways and fighting possibly after the event, he still remembered nearby, which would be safer, staying his parents discussing the question or leaving? She had a handicapped of leaving their house and escaping sister living with her and two young the city to avoid the bombardment. children, so she decided to remain. So Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies (LCMSDS) Air Photo Collection 138/4281 Air Photo Military and Disarmament Studies (LCMSDS) Laurier Centre for Strategic However, his mother was pregnant did many civilians that night.36 With and they decided it was better for much of the city still standing, most them to stay put in the safest part hoped the danger had passed. Rather of the house. When they heard the than leave the city, many returned planes turning towards their city to their beds.37 However, the attacks Above: Various ground views of the destruction in Lisieux. they took shelter, according to their were not over. At 0120 hours the next practiced routine, at the bottom of the morning (7 June) 102 Halifax and Below: The grave markers of the Faucon, Grenet and Mignot families who were staircase landing on the ground floor. Lancaster heavy bombers appeared killed in the Allied bombing of Lisieux. It was in the centre of the house and over the damaged, sleeping city. For seemed to offer the best protection. Suddenly a bomb exploded, destroying the house’s back wall and knocking him out. As he briefly regained consciousness, he called out asking for water, and remembers his mother answering him. Then he Author’s collection Author’s again passed into a coma that lasted
Opposite: This air photo shows Lisieux as it appeared on 13 August 1944. The effects of repeated bombings are clearly visible as much of the city is heavily damaged.
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2010 31 7
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 31 6/15/2010 8:39:43 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3 US Air Force Photo 53184 AC 53184 Photo US Air Force
B-26 Marauders of the Ninth US Air Force attack the Lisieux Marshalling Yards during the summer of 1944.
20 minutes bombs reigned down on was able to free the young woman, But the city’s agony was still not the city, destroying Saint-Désir and but Ginette was injured too badly. over. At 1400 hours, 74 B-24s from the hitting other sections of the town.38 “Mama, I will die but the war will 2nd Bomb Division returned to the Twenty minutes seemed like be finished,” she told her mother. As city, determined to keep the Germans eternity to those on the ground. To Andrée tried to comfort her daughter, from using it as a route to the coast. young Gerald Hanocque, the bombs she expired, becoming as she had From 20,000 feet they dropped over seemed to fall as a never-ending wished: an angel.40 678 tons of explosives, including 120 string of rosary beads. The force of In the morning, with the bombers 1,000-pound bombs and 22 2,000 the explosion, like an earthquake, gone, the burning buildings seemed pound bombs. This attack completed caused the old city structures to shake eerie against the low-hanging Lisieux’s destruction. Fires raged for off their foundations and tumble clouds and a light rain. Hanocque three days, with no one to put them 42 to the ground. The city burst into remembered there was silence; “a out. The next day, the weather AC 61321 Photo US Air Force flames with most of the destruction silence of desolation.” It was a vision cleared enough for an accurate around the Église Saint-Désir, where that Gérard who does not give his age photographic reconnaissance the main road from Paris and the but appears to be in his early teens, mission. The photo shows the fires rail line crossed the river.39 Madame was never able to get out of his head. still burning and, in the words of the Petit found herself, after the first His memories were made worse by analyst who examined the photos, explosion with her wounded son in the images of death, and destruction “much destruction in the town.”43 her arms. Then, another bomb hit the all around him. He remembered These three attacks killed at lower part of the house, killing her watching Dr. Prévost, removing least 781 Lisieux citizens and a large sister and wounding her in the head the rubble from his home, “brick by number of refugees from the coast and legs. The explosion destroyed brick,” to find the remains of his wife whose identity will never be known. the part of the house that served as and daughter. And he was saddened Of course, many more were wounded the cafe, trapping her seven-year- that the local hero Paul Cornu died and would suffer with the memories old daughter, Ginette, and a young that night, along with his brother’s of those 48 hours.44 The bombers waitress, among the debris. She wife and six children.41 damaged the town’s two main
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/332 8
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 32 6/15/2010 8:39:43 AM : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
highway bridges, but the Germans Saint-Lô course, as most Frenchmen knew, the quickly replaced one of them. While invasion would take place in the Pas the demolished buildings slowed ince its earliest days, Saint-Lô was de Calais, far from the tranquillity of some traffic, it had little effect on San important Norman market this market town.48 German movement to the battle town and crossroads. The ancient Allied planners had identified area.45 In fact, the rubbled nature of part of the city, the Enclos, rested three targets in the city: Target C1 the city, providing natural machine atop a rocky perch that dominates the was the main bridge crossing the gun emplacements, contributed to the slow-moving Vire River. In addition river just below the Enclos. Target German’s stubborn defence against to the ancient Église Nortre-Dame, C2 was a crossroads just south of the US Air Force Photo 53184 AC 53184 Photo US Air Force the British 51st (Highland) Division, begun in the 13th century, the old city escarpment. Target C3 was identified which lasted for four days during was rich in historic and architectural in the written order, but not on the the so-called pursuit to the Seine. treasures extending back more than target map, and there was probably The Highlanders finally drove the 500 years to the beginning of the some confusion as to the bombers’ Germans out of the city on 23 August, Middle Ages. By 1944, as a result of exact aiming point. There was no after fighting that resulted in more the war, the population had dropped question about the fourth target. On civilian casualties.46 The first stage from 16,000 citizens in 1936 to 12,800. the map was a big “X” in the middle of Lisieux’s agony came to an end on Unlisted on the official roles were a of the old city, simply labelled as a that summer day. Now, its remaining large number of refugees from the “choke point.” The army wanted the citizens tried to put the pieces of their coastal areas and places under more bombers to rubble the ancient city.49 lives back together, rebuild their city intense German occupation.47 With Saint-Lô’s citizens went to bed and reconcile their relationship with a regional road network almost as as normal on the evening of 5 June. the arriving British forces. important as Caen’s, the city’s central Although rumours of the impending location made it a natural objective invasion had been in the air for for any force landing in the area. Of weeks, they apparently had no special
The ruined city of Saint-Lô photographed following its capture by the US Army at the end of July 1944. The destruction was caused by a combination of Allied bombing throughout June and July and the fighting to capture the city at the end of July. US Air Force Photo 61321 AC 61321 Photo US Air Force
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2010 33 9
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 33 6/15/2010 8:39:44 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3
any serious result. Fifteen minutes later, the aircraft returned again, knocking out the city’s power. These minor raids probably deceived some citizens as to the nature of the fighting that would come: entertaining and rather painless. Throughout the day,
those with a view to the countryside Archives LCMSDS beyond the city, watched as American fighter-bombers from the Ninth Air Force attacked German units moving toward the coast.54 One can only imagine what was going through the minds of those in Saint-Lô, who had generally been spared the destruction that much of France and Europe had already experienced. For example, Jean Roger, a 23 year old who was affiliated with the local resistance, found the day exciting. Planes in the sky, agitated Germans, American prisoners, the sense of imminent liberation, kept him and his fellow citizens on edge. For him the day was “full of joy, curiosity, anxiety, waiting, impatience and a gut feeling that perhaps the invasion may have failed.”55 However, the Allies were still coming and at 1330 hours British Radio broadcast an appeal The damage caused by bombing in Saint-Lô was extensive. to evacuate the city, and get at least three kilometres away. Unfortunately concerns. Suddenly, around 2330 evacuate. Most did not.51 No one for the French, the Germans had hours an anti-aircraft gun opened up on the ground realized that, shortly confiscated most radios and few on a cargo aircraft, probably one that before 0900 hours, 78 American heard this appeal, and even fewer had just carried American airborne bombers from seven B-17 squadrons understood the consequences for not forces to their drop zone, and it had approached Saint-Lô intent on complying.56 The first real indication burst into flames. Now everyone was destroying it. None of the squadrons that the war was getting closer was awake and by early morning, news of were able to locate the city and they a strike by about 14 Mustang fighters the landings had spread throughout turned back toward England without which strafed and bombed railcars the city.50 The French Resistance dropping a bomb.52 and troops near the train station.57 knew what was going on, since the During the day, citizens who By late afternoon, fighting was Allied high command had broadcast realized that they might be caught in heavy and the situation at Omaha the warning that the invasion was intense fighting when the American and Utah beaches was especially underway, and they began cutting arrived took precautions, such as tense, as battalion after battalion of telephone lines. As the word of the hiding their valuables and stocking landings spread, the citizens had up on food and water. All day they little thought of returning to sleep. heard the sounds of the fighting in Saint-Lô burns following an aerial attack on 7 June 1944. Note the US By dawn, they were able to hear the the distance, and watched as German P-38 Lightning in the top left corner fighting that was taking place along vehicles moved though the town of the photo. This aircraft would have the coast, 35 kilometres away. An towards the front lines.53 A few Allied been taking post-raid intelligence American aircraft dropped leaflets aircraft attacked the main electric photographs. on the city, urging the citizens to plant around 1000 hours without out
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/334 10
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 34 6/15/2010 8:39:44 AM : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day LCMSDS Archives LCMSDS
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2010 35 11
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 35 6/15/2010 8:39:45 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3 US Air Force Photo 52676 AC 52676 Photo US Air Force
This aerial photograph captures a raid in progress on Saint-Lô during June 1944.
German troops moved forward to the local college. She boarded at the aunt, not quite sure what was going join the fight. The road through Saint- home of Madame Gravey who had on and they spent the afternoon Lô that should have been destroyed four children and rented out rooms trying to get news about the events in the early wave of attacks and to people needing a temporary along the coast. Then the bombs the last choke point between the place to stay. Monsieur Gravey had fell and they watched from a safe southwest and the coastal battle line, apparently been arrested earlier in distance as the inner city burst into was still open. Allied reconnaissance the spring, and was locked up in the flames.59 determined that the LXXXIV Corps’ local prison. Michelle had returned to In another part of the city, Jean AC 61322 Photo US Air Force reserve, the 30th Mobile Brigade, and her room on 5 June in preparation for Roger and his mother were sitting other units were moving though the classes the next day. Awakened that outside her house. He saw the city. Army planners expected more night by the sounds of the invasion approaching American bombers units to pass through this critical she was, like everyone else, excited and marvelled at how fantastic they crossroads by morning. They wanted and unable to get back to sleep. Her looked. Suddenly a sensation came it blocked and directed the Eighth Air grandmother lived in another part over him that “directly changed his Force to gave it another try.58 of the city and, once she discovered life. They are bombing!” They ran Michelle Chapron was 13 the school was closed, she raced downstairs to find his father, and look years old at the time. She was from across town, about eight kilometres, for shelter. Along with about 20 other Carentan, but lived in Saint-Lô to join her. Arriving after noon, she people, the found a cellar and took while she was going to school at discovered her grandmother and cover.60 Although the cloud cover
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/336 12
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 36 6/15/2010 8:39:46 AM : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
was still thick, 36 out of 72 bombers as they headed towards the ground, conveys the horror and terror she still found Saint-Lô. In the space of just a followed by the explosive’s crashing felt many years later: “Her soul was few moments they dropped over 101 sounds and bright flashes. Terrorized, profoundly wounded when she was short tons (202,800 pounds) of bombs she hid with her grandmother and a teenager.”64 Forty years after the on the city centre.61 The attack came aunt in a, hopefully, safe room in the event, Jean Roger was left with one as a surprise to most citizens. house. One of the neighbours, who memory of that night: his city was Concerned that the Americans had “a véau Verdun,” (a Verdun leg, “butchered.”65 had not accomplished the mission, obviously referring to a wound from This impression was confirmed the planners directed the RAF Bomber the Great War), led them to a place the next day by an American photo- Command to block the city. At 0200 that would be safer. It was for them, reconnaissance mission that took US Air Force Photo 52676 AC 52676 Photo US Air Force hours (7 June), it arrived with 110 “la nuit du grand cauchemar,” the night pictures of what was left of Saint- Lancaster and Halifax bombers, each of the grand nightmare.63 Lô. The photographs showed that capable of carrying 14,000 pounds While the bombings are most of buildings in the Enclos were of bombs. With possibly 700 tons important to these survivors, even destroyed or severely damaged. The of bombs aimed at the Enclos, there more poignant are their memories photos show large concentrations of was no pretending that this was a of the following morning. Michelle craters in the centre, south, and east precision mission and, guided by the Chapron retuned to the Gravey home of the city centre. The railway station flames from the earlier Eighth Air and found left. Madame Gravey was partially destroyed. However Force strike, dropped their bomb load and her four children, ranging in the most important target, the main in the heart of the old city.62 Michelle age from two to nine were dead. bridge across the Vire River, had Chopin and her grandmother were In addition, Madame Barbier, a been hit directly only once. What outside as the next wave of bombers professor at the college and her the airborne photographers could arrived, and watched as the city daughter also died, as did another not report, or comment on, was was bombed even heavier than the student. Michelle’s race across town the human cost of this attack.66 It early one. She remembers watching the previous afternoon had saved is almost impossible to accurately large waves of aircraft passing very her life. Of course, her memories count the number of deaths within low over her house. The bombs never went away. Her hand-written and around Saint-Lô. In addition to themselves made a howling sound testimony, done in a beautiful script, its citizens, many refugees from the
A US Army jeep is parked amongst the rubble of Saint-Lô following the capture of the city at the end of July 1944. US Air Force Photo 61322 AC 61322 Photo US Air Force
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2010 37 13
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 37 6/15/2010 8:39:46 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3
countryside and the coast had found range of the ground forces and that shelter with family and friends. Of it was such a “milk run” for the course, in the confusion of regional bomber crews compared to strikes combat and the intense burning in the against targets in Germany, that city, many bodies were simply never they had little to say about it. Maybe recovered. Estimates and casualty it just got lost within the confusion
reports extend from a low of 500 author by Photo of the madness that accompanied dead to over 3,000. It is reasonable the landings on 6 June. It certainly to assume that approximately 1,000 is not the kind of story that places civilians perished that evening, and American, British, and Canadian thousands more were physically and leaders and airmen in a positive light. psychologically injured.67 It also may be indicative of modern The horror for the survivors of Anglo-Saxon military historian’s this city was not over. Fighters and aversion to consulting the sources bombers from the Ninth Air Force that exist in languages other than visited the city many times over English. However, what is also the next six weeks, and bombed interesting to this author is the the city centre on at least four more absence of outrage in most of the occasions. Finally, after an intense A monument to the civilian bombardment French literature. Although the two-week battle that cost over 5,000 victims now greets visitors as they enter French death toll at Normandy was American casualties, German troops Saint-Lô today. perhaps four times that suffered left Saint-Lô for good on 19 July, the by New York during Osama Bin city’s rubble actually facilitating the Laden’s attack on the World Trade enemy defences.68 A week later, the over 60,000 French civilians. Cites Center, there had been little written US VII Corps lined up along a section and infrastructure across France were outrage until the 1980s.73 Most likely, of the highway northwest of the in ruin.71 This paper has addressed the French governments and people ruined city. After some delays and only two of at least 15 cities attacked that emerged from the ashes in 1945 missteps, 1,500 B-17 and B-24 heavy that day in the Normandy area had just too much on their agenda to bombers dropped over 3,000 tons of of operations. Certainly, civilians complain. Rebuilding, reconciliation, bombs in an imaginary box two miles on the Eastern Front suffered far the Cold War, the futile attempts to wide by four miles long, occupied by more than those in France. Yes, the hold empires in Asia and Africa, and the German Panzer Lehr Division. German civilians, under the bombs the collective confusion over fighting Within 48 hours, the breakout from in Hamburg, Dresden, Köln and each other made it best to avoid the Normandy was in full force.69 Frankfurt suffered more casualties asking too many questions. also. But the French experience But now, more than 60 years represents one of the largest collateral later, it is time to correct the historical What does it mean? damage events, to use the current record. Were these bombings effective terminology, in modern history. and did they materially contribute y 7 June, approximately 2,500 When I raise these issues with my to the success of the Normandy BAllied troops lay dead and students, the classic hero-based offensive? How did the surviving another 7,500 wounded on the five Normandy narrative emerges. “Not citizens of these martyred villages landing beaches and near the airborne possible” or “the French are lying.” interact with Anglo-Americans in drop zones. Seldom mentioned When confronted by the evidence, a the decades after 1945? Was De in the English texts is the fact that common response is, “That was the Gaulle’s alleged comment that the approximately 3,000 French civilians price of liberation,” which is the well- United States would defend Europe also lay dead and thousands more named article by William Hitchcock until the last European a not so wounded in the three departments in a recent issue of Military History subtitle reminder of these early near Normandy – La Manche, Quarterly.72 Such flippant remarks, events? Were the “Yankee go home!” L’Orne, and Calvados – as a result however, miss this story’s important slogans painted on walls in the early of the Allied air attacks in support issues. Cold War the work of Communists of Operation Overlord.70 By the time Why do we know so little? as alleged? Or was it the work of the war was over, Allied bombing Perhaps it is because most of this event survivors who truly wanted the had killed at least 8,000 Normans and took place beyond the observation Americans out? How did a mature
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/338 14
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 38 6/15/2010 8:39:47 AM : Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – The Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
J.P. Coldier or a Jean Roger, react 1994); Gordon A. Harrison, The European 11. Ryan, The Longest Day; Keegan, Six Armies Theater of Operations: Cross-Channel Attack, in Normandy; Ambrose, D-Day; Dodd and to visiting American tourists in United States Army in World War II Knapp, “’How Many Frenchmen Did You the 1950s and 1960s? These are, in (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Kill?’ British Bombing Policy Towards my view, the kinds of questions Military History, 1951; reprint, U. S. Army France (1940-1945),” p.470. Center of Military History, 1993); Russell 12. Bernard Montgomery, Normandy to the historians should now be asking A. Hart, Clash of Army: How the Allies Baltic (London: Hutchinson & Company, about the campaign in Normandy. Won in Normandy (Norman: University 1947), pp.126-27; Dwight D. Eisenhower, Was destroying these cities required, of Oklahoma Press, 2004); Richard Crusade in Europe (Garden City, NY: Hargreaves, The Germans in Normandy Garden City Books, 1948); Arthur Tedder, as Eisenhower argued, because (Barnsley, South Yorkshire (UK): Pen & With Prejudice: The War Memoirs of Marshal of “military necessity,”74 the right Sword, 2006); John Keegan, Six Armies in of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, GCB answer? Certainly, understanding Normandy (New York: Viking Press, 1982); (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, Cornelius Ryan, The Longest Day (New 1966). the air campaign against French York: Simon & Schuster, 1959); Russell 13. Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, towns and cities is, for those in the F. Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, the The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany, English-speaking world, a new Campaign of France and Germany, 1944- 1939-1945, Vol.III, Victory: Part V, The 1945, ed. Louis Morton (Bloomington: Culmination of the Offensive: The Results perspective on the war. Indiana University Press, 1981). These are of Air Superiority, March 1944-1945 just a few of the many great books on the (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, campaign that minimize the effects of the 1961); Wesley Frank Craven and James campaign on the French population and Lea Cate, Europe: Argument to V-E Day, Notes its infrastructure. January 1944-May 1945, Vol.III, The Army 5. Brinkley, The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc. Air Forces in World War II (Chicago: 6. Richard G. Davis, Bombing the European University of Chicago Press, 1948), 1. Trafford Leigh-Mallory, “Operation Powers (Maxwell, AFB: Air University pp.196-98. Donald L. Miller, Masters of the ‘Neptune,’ Allied Expeditionary Air Press, 2006), Data Base, and author’s visit Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Force Overall Air Plan,” ed. Allied in 2007. Air War against Nazi Germany (New York: Expeditionary Air Force, SHAFE (London: 7. Lindsey Dodd and Andrew Knapp, Simon & Schuster, 2006). Walter Beddell Smith Papers Eisenhower “’How Many Frenchmen Did You Kill?’ 14. Craven and Cate, Europe, Vol. III, p.193. Presidential Library, 1944). Air Historical British Bombing Policy Towards France Robert W. Akerman, “The Employment Branch Royal Air Force, “RAF Narrative (1940-1945),” Society for the Study of French of Strategic Bombers in a Tactical Role, (First Draft): The Liberation of North History (2008), pp.469-70; Eric Alary, 1941-1951,” (Maxwell AFB: Reasearch West Europe; Volume III: The Landings Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon, and Gilles Studies Institute, Air University, 1953). in Normandy,” ed. Royal Air Force, Gauvin, Les Français Au Quotidien, 1939- 15. Office of Statistical Control, “Army Air (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air Force 1949 (Paris: Perrin, 2006), p.504. Forces Statistical Digest “ (Washington, Historical Research Agency, 1945), p.119. 8. Eddy Florentin and Claude Archambault, DC: US Army Air Forces 1945), Table Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, Quand Le Alliés Bombardaient La France 141; Arthur T. Harris, Despatch on War The Bomber Command War Diaries: An (Paris: Perrin, 1997). Operations, 23 February, 1942 to 8th May, Operational Reference Book (New York: 9. Martin Blumenson, The European Theater 1945 (London: Frank Cass, 1995), p.44 as Viking, 1985), pp.522-23. These towns of Operations: Breakout and Pursuit, refined by Andrew Knapp. were La Pernelle, Crisbecq, Maisy, Saint- United States Army in World War II 16. William I. Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Pierre du Mont, Longues, Ver sur Mer, (Washington, DC: US Army Center of Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Sallenelles and Houlgate. Military History, 1961; reprint, US Army Europe (New York: The Free Press, 2008), 2. Operations Deputy Chief of Staff, Eighth Center of Military History, 1993), pp.146- 19-43; William I. Hitchcock, “The Price of Air Force Tactical Operations in Support of 7. Liberation,” MHQ: The Quarterly Journal Allied Landings in Normandy, 2 June-17 June 10. Estimating casualties is a frustrating of Military History 21, no.3 (Spring 2009). 1944 (High Wycombe, United Kingdom: enterprise. Even Gordon A. Harrison, 17. Dodd and Knapp, “’How Many United States Eighth Air Force, 1944), author of the United State’s Army’s official Frenchmen Did You Kill?’ British Field Order 727. history of the D-Day landing, could not Bombing Policy Towards France (1940- 3. Air Historical Branch Royal Air Force, get an accurate count. See Harrison, 1945)”; Andrew Knapp, “The Destruction “RAF Narrative (First Draft): The p.330, note 90. French historians, Jean and Liberation of Le Havre in Modern Liberation of North West Europe; Volume Quellien and Bernard Garnier, under Memory,” War in History 14, no.4 (2007). 1: The Planning and Preparation of the the auspices of an interagency working Knapp is also co-director of a project Allied Expeditionary Air Force for the group, estimate the total losses for these funded by the Arts and humanities Landings in Normandy,” ed. Royal Air three departments at approximately Research Council on “Bombing States and Force (Caen: Caen Mémorial Archives 14,000, with sixty per cent a result of the Peoples in Western Europe, 1940-1945.“ 1946), pp.177-84. aerial bombardment. Jean Quellien and For details on this organizations work, 4. Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6 1944 Bernard Garnier, Les Victimes Civiles Du contact:
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2010 39 15
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 39 6/15/2010 8:39:47 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 2, Art. 3
20. Copp, Fields of Fire, pp.98-106, 35-54; Max 37. Quellien and Garnier, Les Victimes Civiles 58. Harrison, Cross-Channel Attack, pp.321-35. Hastings, Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Du Calvados, p.47. I intend to review the Army Group logs Normandy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 38. Middlebrook and Everitt, The Bomber and correspondence on my research visit 1984), pp.221-43. Command War Diaries, pp.523-24; Quellien to Kew in March 2010. 21. Catholic Online, “Saint Therese of and Garnier, Les Victimes Civiles Du 59. Chapron, “Mémoires De L’été 1944.” Lisieux,”
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss2/340 16
Bourque - St-Lo and Lisieux.indd 40 6/15/2010 8:39:47 AM