Destruction

Workers clearing debris in the ruins of a French town, summer of 1940. I have a number of photos from the Battle of France, showing many towns and villages damaged to a greater or lesser degree. German bombing raids during the six weeks the campaign lasted caused the deaths of about 3,250 civilians. It’s hard to find the total number of civilan deaths due to combat action.

Still, in the coming years, France would be the target of a great number of British and American air raids, hitting factories, ports and communications. Over 50,000 French civilians were killed by Allied bombs between 1940 and 1944. Close to 20,000 civilians died in Normandy alone in conjunction with bomb raids and combat action on D-Day and the weeks afterwards. The war destroyed 1.2 million French homes, taking a generation to rebuild. Other countries suffered even more, Poland perhaps worst of all. This is the oft-neglected effect of war when history is written, and some of it is conveniently forgotten, like the French killed by their saviors…