Normandy had long been a pleasant productive green land, until 1940 when the German occupiers arrived. The sad fate was for the area to be terrorised by the Germans and bombed by the Allies before they arrived in force and fought through the towns of Normandy to liberate them – Very Highly Recommended.
NAME: Normandy's Nightmare War, The French Experience of Nazi Occupation and Allied Bombing 1940-45 FILE: R2960 AUTHOR: Douglas Boyd PUBLISHER: Pen and Sword BINDING: soft back PRICE: £18.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWII, World War II, World War 2, Second World War, German Occupation, special forces, covert operations, airborne forces, paratroops, assault gliders, light infantry, supply drops, armour, civilians, D-Day, carpet bombing, breakout, liberation
ISBN: 1-52674-581-X
IMAGE: B2960.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/y6238ecc LINKS: DESCRIPTION: Normandy had long been a pleasant productive green land, until 1940 when the German occupiers arrived. The sad fate was for the area to be terrorised by the Germans and bombed by the Allies before they arrived in force and fought through the towns of Normandy to liberate them – Very Highly Recommended. The Normandy experience during WWII was filled with terror and this cruel story is told by those who lived through the testing times. There were certainly some French who detested the terror brought on them by the Nazis and the Allies, but the general feeling of the inhabitants was that they accepted Allied bombing as a necessary price to pay for liberation. As in any war, there were a few who profited greatly from the conflict, and the many who suffered to some extent. Under occupation that continued. After liberation the inhabitants faced a long hard struggle to rebuild and return to a peaceful existence. The Germans terrorised the people of Normandy in several ways. Just marching down the street was an offence to the Normans. Forcing civilians and POWs to work on the construction of fortifications was direct hardship. The people of Normandy rapidly formed Resistance Groups, collecting intelligence for the Allies and conducting sabotage. The Germans responded by rounding up hostages to encourage Frenchmen to inform on the Resistance. Inevitably, the population held firm the Germans began killing hostages and making life hard for the survivors. Ahead of D-Day, the daily bombing of the area increased greatly, but bombing had been a fact of life since the Occupation began and had been growing in intensity. The inhabitants of Normandy stoically endured. Then the beach landings began, creating hope and more terror. That continued until the Germans were removed by the Allies and reconstruction could begin. Exactly how many civilians were killed by the bombing may never be known but in one raid alone some 3,000 were killed and many thousands of raids from 1940 killed so many more. The author has lived in France for more than forty years and this book has been built on the research and interviews he has undertaken over that period.