Located southwest of Caen, Évrecy is a small village with a wartime population of just 430. During the Battle of Normandy, it became a symbol of the martyred villages wiped out by Allied bombing raids.
Ten days after D-Day, the Allies, still fearful of being driven back to the sea by the Germans, continued to bomb strategic positions, road intersections, communication nodes and railroads to delay German reinforcements. In the Évrecy region, the 12th SS Panzer Division group joined the 21st Division on June 7, aiming to sweep away enemy forces infiltrating west of the Orne.
Between Caumont-L'Éventé and Caen, where German armored troops had gathered, the village of Évrecy was one of the targets of RAF Bomber Command. During the night of June 14 to 15, between 3:00 and 3:20 a.m., dozens of tons of bombs were dropped on the Norman village. A third of the inhabitants were killed in their sleep.
The bombing maneuver enabled the withdrawal of the British 7th Armored Division, which had been struggling for two days after its failure at Villers-Bocage, and prevented any attempt at a German counter-attack.
During the Battle of Normandy, Évrecy was the commune with the highest proportion of civilian casualties in the whole of Normandy. Évrecy, almost entirely destroyed, had to wait a long time for its liberation, as the British only liberated the ruined village on August 4, 1944.
Today, the monument to the two world wars is a particular reminder of the tragedy of June 15, 1944.
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