The French city occupied by one WWII side and flattened by the other

Caen is a historic university town near the coast of Normandy where memories of World War II remain deeply entrenched.

Today it's home to Normandy's largest war museum, Memorial de Caen, and a hub for tourists visiting the D-Day sites.

Few of its original buildings remain. The city had to be completely rebuilt after being destroyed during the war… by Allied bombing.

At dawn on June 6, 1944, around 150,000 American, British and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy. One of the first objectives following the D-Day landings was to capture German-occupied Caen, 15 kilometers inland.

"The city of Caen was a strategic city for the Allies because of its position, controlling bridges and major roads," explains historian and author Christophe Prime, head of collections at the Memorial de Caen.

"Once it was taken, the Allied troops could break out of Normandy. It was the gateway to the liberation of French territory and then Germany."

But if the plan was simple, the fighting wasn't easy. What followed was weeks of intense fighting against stiff German resistance. But the Allies had air superiority, carpet-bombing Caen and the surrounding towns and villages.

Sheltering in churches and caves

The historic Abbaye-aux-Hommes in central Caen is one of the few historical buildings that remained intact during bombardment. It's the burial place of William the Conqueror, the Norman Duke who invaded England and became its king.

Back in 1944 the church became a refuge for civilians and the wounded escaping the bombing. Families slept there for weeks on end. A large white sheet with a red cross was placed on the roof and the French resistance warned the Allies not to bomb it.

Others took shelter in caves and tunnels beneath the nearby limestone quarries.

Marie Nicole Deschamps was nine years old at the time and lost several relatives in the bombing raids.

"We saw that Caen was burning, we could see the fires because of the bombing," says Deschamps – now 90 years old. "We saw the fire and then the noise, the noise of bombs."

She spent more than a month sheltering with neighbors in a cave beneath a local quarry.

"We slept on the straw, we had no water, so we drank the water that fell from the roof," she recalls. "We had no toys, we had nothing – we left home so quickly. I lived with my clothes on for a month without ever changing."

By the time Allied troops finally entered Caen, three-quarters of the city had been reduced to rubble – and more than 2,000 residents had been killed in Allied efforts to liberate them.

Historian Emmanuel Thiebot is founder of a museum in nearby Falaise, dedicated to the civilians during the war.

"When the (Allied) fighters arrived there was obviously a bit of bitterness," he says. "But despite everything, they were the ones who set us free after four years of brutal occupation. Despite the destruction, the welcome was quite cordial."

The memories of liberation bring a smile to Deschamps' face.

"They waved at us and would throw us chocolates and cigarettes," she smiles. "They were nice. We were happy to see them."

War graves

Between June and August 1944 an estimated 50,000 Allied troops and 30,000 Nazi fighters were killed in the battle for Normandy, with many, many more injured or missing.

At the Saint Manvieu War Graves cemetery near Caen, row upon row of immaculately maintained graves are a stark reminder of the human cost of war.

More than 2,000 soldiers are buried here – mostly British, with some 500 Germans. Some on both sides were still in their teens. There are few reminders, though, for the 20,000 French civilians who died.

To mark those deaths, historian Thiebot took me to a cemetery in Falaise. In one corner a row of plain white crosses stands beneath a monument, whose inscription talks of those who lost their lives in the bombing for the liberation of the country.

There are no names on the crosses. Many in this mass grave were never identified.

"It's obvious that we have learned absolutely no lessons," Thiebot reflects. "Look at all the conflicts since the war or follow the news today to realize that unfortunately civilian populations are increasingly at the forefront of all these battles, even becoming targets." 

Rebuilding the city

After the fighting stopped, the rebuilding began – and took almost 20 years. Initially German prisoners of war helped clear the rubble, then several countries helped finance the reconstruction.

Some of the historic buildings, like St Peter's Church, were fully restored replacing the lost spire.

Several of the narrow medieval cobbled streets were replaced with wide tree-lined boulevards, along with a modern tram system.

Today Caen is a UNESCO-designated creative city, with more than 1,000 firms employing about 5,000 people in the field of Media Arts. 

At the entrance to the rebuilt university is a statue of a phoenix – the bird which rose from the ashes. It's become a symbol of renewal in a city with a lot of stories to tell.