Operational Fires Lisieux and Saint-Lô – the Destruction of Two Norman Towns on D-Day
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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.