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| Destruction of Saint-Lô – Saint-Lô after American bombing |
Allied Bombing during the Normandy invasion destroyed 96% of Tilly-la-Campagne, 95% of Vire, 95% of Saint-Lô, 88% of Villers-Bocage, 82% of Le Havre, 76% of Falaise, 75% of Lisieux and 75% of Caen. The military value of these bombings was highly debatable. As for the destruction of Caen, known for its historical buildings built during the reign of William the Conqueror, it has long been admitted that it was militarily useless. According to the famous French historian and former member of the French Resistance Movement Henri Amouroux (awarded Croix de Guerre 1939-1945) 20,000 civilians were killed in Calvados department, 10,000 in Seine-Maritime, 14,800 in the Manche, 4,200 in the Orne and around 3,000 in the Eure. All together, that makes more than 50,000 French civilians killed by Allied bombings in Normandy alone, however, the Allies escaped all responsible for all of the death and destruction because they were 'represented as “liberators”. Top image: Boeing B-17 heavy bombers of the USAAF 381st Bombardment Group. The Group supported the Normandy invasion in June 1944 by bombing bridges and airfields and it bombed suspected positions in advance of ground forces at Saint-Lô in July 1944. USAFHRA. Public domain. Bottom image: American soldiers watch U.S. Army jeeps drive through the ruins of Saint-Lô. The heavy damage and the high number of casualties after the American bombing of Saint-Lô resulted in the city being called The Capital of Ruins. Photo by American photographer Frank Scherschel. LIFE photo archive. Fair use.
The British and American bombing raids killed thousands of French civilians and levelled dozens of historic Norman towns. By modern definitions, these raids count as a war crime. Corrado Di Pompeo, who worked for the Corporations Ministry in Rome, wrote in 1944 that 'the Americans ... are only able to destroy and to kill unarmed people'.
ReplyDeleteAllied bomb raids killed far more french civilians than the german occupiers ever did. But hey ... it was the good guys, right? The noble knights in shiny armour on their white horses? And after all - what's some collateral damage in service of the greater good?
ReplyDeleteThe German panzer divisions in Normandy were war criminals. Their ranks had many from the Hitler Youth programme. Even the Red Army, bad as it was at times, could not compete with these guys when it came to murder. God bless the bomber pilots that saved allied ground troops.
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DeleteI feel like this is an ironic post.
DeleteA large-scale campaign of mass murder and destruction by our American War Heroes. And this is the Greatest Generation!
ReplyDeleteNi oubli Ni pardon Jamais.
ReplyDeleteLast I checked, bombing civilian centers with B-17s was an obvious war crime. Only the losers get charged though.
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