Category Archives: State responds

Civil defence teams

Civil defence teams: Marseille civil defence workers are congratulated by their chief, Commandant Seydoux, after the raid of 27 May 1944. Courtesy Archives Municipales de Marseille, 29/II/4.

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Civil defence cadres

Civil defence cadres: the prefect-delegate for Marseille with national and regional SIPEG officials after the raid of 27 May 1944. The raid destroyed the local SIPEG headquarters and killed its occupants, as the modern plaque indicates. Courtesy Archives Municipales de … Continue reading

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Shelters: this shelter for Marseille railwaymen

Shelters: this shelter for Marseille railwaymen took a direct hit on 27 May 1944, resulting in up to 100 deaths. Courtesy Archives Municipales de Marseille, 29/II/4.

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Shelters: digging a ‘family trench’

Shelters: digging a ‘family trench’ in Avranches, summer 1944. Useless against a direct hit, this shelter would have protected its occupants against blast and splinters. Collection BDIC-MHC. Tous droits réservés.

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Civil defence deaths in Marseille, 27 May 1944

This plaque in central Marseille commemorates the staff of the town’s civil defence headquarters, killed at their posts in the raid of 27 May 1944.             Photo: Andrew Knapp

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Information on casualties

The Bulletin d’Information de la Défense Passive for July 1944 sets out statistics for raids in the second quarter of the year. Courtesy Mémorial de Caen, FQ/72.

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‘Cowards! – France will not forget!’

‘Cowards! – France will not forget!’ The simplest collaborationist French poster against the bombing, with the Parisian basilica of Sacré Coeur in the background. Collection BDIC-MHC. Tous droits réservés.

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‘Murderers always return to the scene of their crime’

‘Murderers always return to the scene of their crime’: a Vichy French poster links the bombing of Rouen with the burning of Joan of Arc by the British in the same city. Collection BDIC-MHC. Tous droits réservés.

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‘Thanks to the British – our stations of the Cross’

‘Thanks to the British – our stations of the Cross’: in a poster redolent of the Anglophobia characteristic of much of the Vichy government, a French soldier is borne down by the weight of a cross, apparently forced upon him … Continue reading

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‘The British started it’

‘The British started it’: a leaflet claims that the British first bombed civilian populations. The Vichy press also liked to present the Germans as more ‘precise’ in their bombing.  Collection BDIC-MHC. Tous droits réservés.

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