The Bombing of Normandy during the Normandy invasion was meant to destroy the German communication lines in the Norman cities and towns. However, very few Germans occupied these municipalities. They were mostly located outside these areas.
The bombings destroyed 96 % of Tilly-la-Campagne (Calvados), 95% of Vire (Calvados), 88 % of Villers-Bocage (Calvados), 82 % of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), 77 % of Saint-Lô (Manche), 76 % of Falaise (Calvados), 75 % of Lisieux (Calvados), 75 % of Caen (Calvados).[1]
It is estimated that the bombings in Normandy before and after D-Day caused over 50,000 civilian casualties. The French historian Henri Amouroux in La Grande histoire des Français sous l’Occupation, says that 20,000 civilians were killed in Calvados department, 10,000 in Seine-Maritime, 14,800 in the Manche, 4,200 in the Orne, around 3,000 in the Eure. The most deadly allied bombings under the German occupation were these: Lisieux (6-7 June 1944, 700 dead), Vire (6-7 June 1944, 400 dead), Caen (6 June-19 July 1944, about 3,000 dead), Le Havre (5-11 September 1944, more than 5,000 dead)[2] [3]
The scale of destruction is already well-established. In some areas, like the Falaise pocket where the Germans were pounded into oblivion at the end of the campaign, barely a building was left standing and soldiers had to walk over banks of human corpses.
As for the destruction of Caen, it has long been admitted that it was militarily useless. The Germans were stationed to the north of the city and were more or less untouched. Max Hastings in his book Overlord described the bombing of Caen as one of the most futile air attacks of the war. An exhibition at the Caen memorial displays letters from Allied servicemen speaking frankly about their poor reception by locals. It was rather a shock to find we were not welcomed ecstatically as liberators by the local people, as we were told we should be... They saw us as bringers of destruction and pain, Cpl LF Roker wrote in his diary. [4]
For many families who lived through the war, it was the arrival and passage of British and American forces that was by far the most tormenting experience. It was profoundly traumatic for the people of Normandy. Think of the hundreds of tons of bombs destroying entire cities and wiping out families. But the suffering of civilians was for many years masked by the over-riding image, that of the French welcoming the liberators with open arms.[5]