Abstract/Summary

On 12 September 1944 Le Havre became the last Norman town to be liberated by the Allies, after receiving nearly 10,000 tons of bombs in a succession of air raids which reduced much of the city to rubble. The raids were wholly consistent with the Allies' policy, pursued since D-Day, of air support to ground forces by heavy bombers. Drawing on both the letters of the British commander of the besieging forces and interrogations of the commandant of the German garrison, this chapter establishes the chain of events that led to the bombing of the city and to the failure of the Allies to allow civilians to be evacuated.