Abstract/Summary

This chapter demonstrates how the bombing of Le Havre in September 1944 was an extreme but unexceptional event in the battle for France, a logical continuation of the use made of heavy bombers to further the progress of ground forces since D-Day. Although a number of dysfunctions in this type of operation had been detected over the previous weeks, not all were corrected in time to prevent the operation of Le Havre causing huge and unnecessary destruction. Neither of the ground commanders on the spot, the German Eberhard Wildermuth and the British John Crocker, was careless of civilian life; yet each, in his own role, furthered the tragedy of the city.