D-Day: The Allied Invasion of France

Prof. Antony Beevor:

“The British bombing of Caen beginning on D-Day in particular was stupid, counterproductive and above all very close to a war crime.”

“There were more than 2,000 casualties there on the first two days and in a way it was miraculous that more people weren’t killed when you think of the bombing and the shelling which carried on for days afterwards.”

The bombing of Caen would be a war crime by today’s standards because the British did precious little to avoid civilian casualties. But this is just one of the many inconvenient truths ignored by the idiot politicians and media types who have been banging on about the virtues of the D-Day landings. Some of these half-wits have been telling us that we should never forget what happened on that day – it happened 65 years ago — there can’t be that many people around to remember it.

If we’re being honest, the Normandy invasions are nothing to celebrate. After 77 days of brutal fighting between over 2 million Allied troops and half a million German troops, 3,000 French civilians were killed — mainly from Allied bombing – over 425,000 Allied and German and French troops (most unwilling conscripts on both sides) were killed, wounded or went missing. On average more people died per day during the Battle of Normandy than during the battle of Somme. The Germans might have executed 2,483 people before or during Operation Overlord for either belonging to or have connections with the French Resistance but in the nine weeks before the D-Day invasions the allies flew 197,000 sorties, dropping 195,000 tons of bombs on France, killing 20 – 30,000 French civilians and wounding another 60,000.

Sarkozy might want to celerbrate D-Day but a lot of  French patriots might feel a bit different because the French have good reason to feel bitter about the D-Day landings. They  might not have liked German occupation much — not that they did much to show it — but they had good reason not to want to be liberated. By the 6 June 1944, Germany was on the verge on defeat, and it’s not like France was any less occupied after the Allied invasion: the Allies installed a puppet occupation government under General De Gaulle that was no less fascist than the Vichy government under Marshal Pétain.

The D-Day landings wasn’t the largest amphibious assault of WWII, that honour belongs to the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). The invasion began on the 9 July 1943 and ended on the 17 August was.  It was supposed to be a liberation, but the Biscari massacre of 74 Italian and 2 German POWs soon ended that illusion, as did the reneging on the deal to support Sicilian independence. The Allied invasion and occupation of Sicily was supposed to be a stepping stone to the invasion and occupation of Italy. The Italian Campaign between 3 September 1943 – 2 May 1945 saw the most fierce fighting on any campaign on the Western Front, with just under a million casualties. In excess of 300,000 Italian Partisan fought during the Civil War, suffering 65, 900 Casualties (44,700 killed) and 15,000 civilians killed in retaliation.

The Italian civil war was sparked by the Allied invasion on the 3 September 1943, the day Badoglio signed the armistice document, which they revealed on the 8 September, making his position untenable. The Italian army were without orders and under attack from the Allies and the Wehrmacht. The Kingdom of Italy didn’t even declare war on Germany until the 13 October 1943.  The massacre of 5000 soldiers of the 33° Acqui Division in Cephalonia on the 21 September wouldn’t have happened if the armistice document hadn’t been published. But the Allies didn’t just want the Italians out of the War, they wanted to occupy Italy just like they did France. American forces have remained in both countries  for the last 65 years.