Manchester University Press French Children Under the Allied Bombs, 1940–45: An Oral History (Cultural History of Modern War)

This book provides a unique perspective on the Allied bombing of France during the Second World War, a campaign that claimed the lives of around 60,000 French civilians. Weaving the words of ordinary French people together with extensive archival research, it explores a little-known part of the Allies' European air war from the ground up. Total war brought violence into the domestic space more than ever before, and bombs were a prominent part of many wartime childhoods. Oral history reveals intimate experience and memory over time, shedding light on how children coped, what they understood, and how traumatic events affected them at the time and into adulthood. Personal memories add to an understanding of the collective memory of the Occupation era, in which bombing has featured very little. Just as children learnt to cope at the domestic level, so the local authorities and the Vichy government developed systems to deal with the upheavals wrought by bombing further up the scale. How prepared were the French for this aerial onslaught? What was it like to be bombed? And how did people make sense of the idea that their 'friends' across the Channel were attacking their factories, ports and railways? Divided into three parts dealing with expectations, experiences and explanations of bombing, this book gives a textured insight into French children's wartime lives. It will appeal to students, academics and general readers interested in the history of Vichy France, the experiences of children in war, the impact of air war on civilians and the practice of oral history.