D-Day

The battle of Normandy caused the death of an estimated 14,000 civilians in just the three departments of Basse Normandie, that is to say:

• 8,000 in the Calvados

• 4,000 in the Manche

• 2,000 in the Orne

In absolute value, it is the town of Caen which suffered the most, with 2,000 killed, that is to say 3.5 % of its population.

According the number of inhabitants, other communities suffered losses proportionally higher:

• 4% of the population of Coutances (270 dead) and Valognes (200 dead)

• 5% of Lisieux (800 dead), Condé-sur-Noireau (250 dead) or Périers (107 dead)

• 6% in Vire (350 dead)

• 7% in Vimoutiers (200 dead)

• 9% in Aunay-on-Odon (200 dead)

The sad record is held by the village of Evrecy, in the west of Caen, where the air raid of the night from the 14 to June 15 caused the death of 130 people out of the 400 inhabitants of the borough.

It appears that on June 6, "the D Day" was also the most tragic for the Bas Normands with 2,200 dead.

On June 7, one counts more 1,600 deaths.

Source: GARNIER Bernard, QUELLIEN Jean et l'Université Inter-Ages, Les victimes civiles du Calvados dans la bataille de Normandie, 1er mars 1944 - 31 décembre 1945, Centre de Recherche d'Histoire Quantitative, Mémorial de Caen, Editions du Lys, Caen, 1995, 495 p.

Here is another opinion that includes the entire Allied invasion and occupation:

While it is difficult, but not impossible, to research the exact numbers for French women and children, here is some basic information (with credit to Mr. William Henry Harris):

"Before, during and after the D-Day landings the Allies dropped over 590,000 tons of bombs on France -- equal to almost half the amount of bombs dropped on Germany during the entire course of the war.

"Over 1 million French homes were destroyed by Allied bombing attacks and some cities such as Caen, Saint-Lo, Carentan, Montbourg and Valognes ceased to exist.

"For every German who lost his life resisting the 'Allied' invasion of France, the lives of four Frenchmen were taken. Whereas German troops had wandered at will during their occupation of France, the British and the Americans were repeatedly confined to barracks or had their movements restricted because of the French resistance to their presence on French soil."

This is an opinion type question. Close air support was used in the European theater as well as in the Pacific. Also used were USAAF medium & heavy bombers in both theaters. At the Normandy Beaches on D-Day, the German fortifications were heavily protected from the rockets & bombs usually used in close-air support. The US Marines & US Army in the Pacific used close air support after landing to assist their advances. It was difficult for close-air support strikes to knock-out Japanese & German fortifications directly. Close-air support was often used as mobile artillery, because the landing forces had not yet landed their artillery. You are correct that the enemy beach defenses at Normandy, especially at Omaha Beach, were not sufficiently degraded before or during the landings. In the days before precision guided munitions, this was a tough challenge. In hindsight, maybe something could have been improved. I tend to think that naval gunfire at closer range would have been more useful.

Other things to keep in mind about the Normandy invasion: The Allies could not give away the time/date and the location of the landing site by bombing or shelling Normandy fortifications more than a few hours before the landing. The Germans could reinforce the beach defenses with troops & equipment dozens of miles away as soon as the location is known. In the Pacific island invasions, the bombing & shelling of Japanese positions could & often did take place weeks, days & hours ahead of the landings, and the Japanese could do very little to reinforce the troops on the ground because the US Navy isolated the target. Despite all the apparent heavy firepower & heavy bombardments on both German & Japanese positions, it required a direct & penetrating hit by large armor piercing or high explosive shells/bombs on the defensive fortification to knock it out. US Close air-support aircraft in WW2 generally did not carry large enough rockets or bombs to destroy these very hardened targets. US Navy Dive-bombers with 1400 ib. armor-piercing bombs in-theory could do the job if they were especially accurate. German AA fire was much more effective & dangerous than Japanese AA fire, making accuracy from aircraft a problem.