Did you read part 1 of the story?
The Americans entered WWII in November 1942 as part of Operation Torch which eventuated in driving Rommel and the Germans from North Africa. Stalin had long been screaming for a direct cross channel attack onto the French mainland so as to create a second front for Hitler and in so doing take the pressure off his embattled country. Churchill and Roosevelt finally agreed but put off the operation for two years, until such time as they had an overwhelming air advantage. In the meantime, the allies re-took Sicily and Italy. Churchill had his eyes on the Balkans but finally agreed to attack across the English channel and strike the Normandy beaches. By the spring of 1944, Rommel had taken over the development of Hitler's Festung Europa, his Atlantic Wall that stretched from Spain to Russia. However, far from being impregnable, it was poorly fortified and vulnerable at many locations. Not only did it “lack a roof” making it vulnerable to bombing, as Churchill had pointed out, but it lacked fortifications of every variety. Rommel was able to fortify primarily the areas in Normandy, Pas de Calais and Norway.
A bombing committee including members from all allied countries was convened under England's Air Chief Marshall, Leigh Mallory. In order to keep the Germans from suspecting the site of the Allied attack it was decided to undertake a wide-ranging, systematic bombing campaign to destroy the entire French railway transportation system throughout Northwest Europe. The Allies believed this was necessary to keep the Germans from speeding reinforcements to Normandy and sealing off the beachheads. So widespread was the bombing that it was impossible for the Germans to draw conclusions from the selected targets as to the intended site of the invasion.
Churchill opposed the bombing fearing a massive slaughter of French civilians would ensue.However, when Maj. Gen. Pierre Koenig, the commander of the Free French forces in the United Kingdom stated “This is war and it is expected that people will be killed... We would take twice the anticipated loss to be rid of the Germans”, and when the usually cantankerous Charles DeGaulle agreed with him, Churchill acquiesced and the Transportation Plan was set in motion. This plan while highly successful and accomplished all that it was intended to accomplish, resulted in the loss of 2,000 aircraft and 12,000 airmen. By the end of the Normandy campaign in August 1944, 28,000 airmen had died. The Transportation Plan resulted in 50,000 French civilians killed and over 100,000 wounded. Nearly 900,000 homes were partially or completely destroyed.
The French citizens of Caen present this night all agreed that while devastating there was no other way to liberate France, and sadly accepted this carnage.
It is estimated that fifty million people were killed in World War II, more than half of whom were civilians. Freedom is indeed not free. It comes with a heavy price tag.
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Adeline and I continued a correspondence for several years. She would send me articles in French newspapers about aspects of WWII and I would send her items from America, including some scarves which she told me she treasured. She was particularly fond of the one adorned with an American flag. It reminded her of her friend from America whom she had happened upon quite by accident looking lost standing in front of an old church in her beloved Caen. Then one day, after a longer than usual lapse in communication, I received a brief, hand-written note bearing no return address and simply telling me that Adeline had died.
