WORLD WAR II 60^TH ANNIVERSARY LISIEUX AND THE ALLIED NORMANDY BEACH LANDING 1944

(Courtesy of Thérèse de Lisieux No. 845 - June 2004)

(Translated by Teresa Geslin Sweeney)

 Lisieux under bomb attack

On the evening of June 6^th a first bomb attack beats down on Lisieux, hitting the station very close to the Carmel and the Avenue of the Basilica and some other areas. 

The following night, over forty five minutes war planes wiped out the main part of the town causing also numerous victims. 21 Benedictines lost their lives at the site of Saint Thérèse’s first communion.  

On June 7^th a third air raid set fire to many parts of the town, destroying the esplanade and the avenue to the Basilica. In just a few minutes the Carmelites had to leave the Carmel and in the sinister light from the fires struggled up the hill to the crypt of the Basilica. They crossed the avenue destroyed with bomb holes and obstructed with heaps of earth and stone. 

On that night, the roof of the house “du Tour” of the Carmel burned completely, but suddenly, the wind turned – that wind which without doubt would have drawn the fire on to the chapel where the reliquary would be found.  

However the fire penetrated onto the staircase in the sisters’ home and it was with great difficulty the following morning  that the priests and seminarians from the “mission de France” got down to work :  Two blazing fires surrounded the cemented cellar where the relics of Saint Thérèse and important documents from the archives had been placed. They managed to save these treasures, that were very nearly burned to pieces and brought them to the Basilica. 

Passers-by, noticing the very obvious protection from heaven, stopped in this street of ruins, and in front of the Carmel chapel, blessed themselves and found new hope. 

During the night of 10^th to 11^th June another massive bombing ruthlessly attacked the town and one could count 85 impacts from small bombs in the interior gardens of the convent. The roofs and windows were damaged but there was no serious damage to the Carmelite convent. 

Consolation : 13^th June Cardinal Suhard had brought to Mother Agnes, prioress, the copy of the papal brief from May 3^rd naming Saint Thérèse second Patroness of France. In such a time of anxiety it was very obviously a sign. 

In July and August numerous bombs fell on the neighbourhood around the station, a prime target, but the Carmel was once again saved by Heaven, even if, the explosions caused rocks, iron bars and all sorts of shells to break through roofs, walls, doors and windows. 

On 11^th July the refugees at the crypt remember with great emotion the unforgettable 11^th July 1937 when the all-new Basilica received its liturgical baptism and when crowds received blessings from the Legate of Pope Pius XI, Cardinal PACELLI. But on this July 11^th 1944 Lisieux is a deserted place, three quarters of the city no longer exists and its inhabitants are in a precarious situation. 

It was decided to organise a novena from the following day July 12^th, with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.  

At its closing on 20^th July, in front of crowds from all the neighbouring country villages, three curates from the city, two of whom saw their churches destroyed, made a promise to Saint Thérèse, to celebrate every year without fail, and very solemnly, her feast day on 30^th September, inviting all from the parish to a procession with her relics, from Saint Pierre’s Cathedral to the Basilica. And this promise has been kept faithfully every year since. 

August. Because of the closeness of the Battle of Normandy, the Director from Secours National of Paris offered to the Carmelite nuns the possibility of their being transported by lorry to Paris. But despite the intensity of the German defence in Caen, they decided that it was their moral obligation to stay until the last possible minute in Lisieux. 

A second novena to prepare for the Assumption was organised from the crypt, to pray for the end of this night mare. 

Rumour had it that the German army was moving back slightly leaving however two divisions on the defence line. Radios echoed the Holy Father’s request that religious buildings in Lisieux be respected. On 16^th August the main German Headquarters asked the local authorities of Lisieux for precise details on these buildings in which there was a world-wide interest. The ‘Kommandatur’ then had to leave quickly and no one ever knew the outcome.  

19^th August the battle of Lisieux begins with the artillery firing. A shell hits the wall of the cloister in the Carmel, reaches the outbuildings, knocks the roof off the washhouse and breaks doors and windows of the convent. During the night of August 21^st to 22^nd there was great agitation in the crypt of the Basilica where people from the country gathered for protection. 200 German soldiers arrived without warning and asked for a place to sleep for a few hours. They were sent to the upper part of the Basilica.  

On the evening of 22^nd the first English tanks arrived and were met with unexpected resistance. German machine guns were positioned on the square and in the surroundings. Firing began between them and the English tanks situated at the station at the foot of the hill. The noise of the machine guns was worsened by the echo in the crypt. A German shell fell in the yard giving access to the crypt, blowing up enormous rocks of granite. It seemed like the Basilica was going to fall. Many other shells hit the square damaging the walls and the granite steps.  

The following evening the English asked to set up an observation post from the lantern in the dome of the cathedral. They even put up a machine gun. But after a few hours they abandoned the position. 

The Basilica is unharmed. The day after the fighting an English officer declared : “the Basilica, it was to be knocked down! We were given the order to destroy it because we were told it was protecting Germans. It was already aimed at when we were guaranteed that there were no soldiers. Not wanting to foolishly destroy such a monument we asked on numerous occasions to check if there were no troops hiding here. There was a counter – order but you were very lucky!” 

After 48 hours of a hard struggle Lisieux was finally freed.  

Sunday 27^th August after a ceremony of thanksgiving the Carmelites went back to their monastery bringing with them the Reliquary of St. Thérèse to the Chapel in the Carmel. They were accompanied by a very large crowd. 

Very light-heartedly these religious people went back to their monastic way of prayer and silence! The holy places blessed by their Sister were all safe despite their numerous but repairable wounds. Most of the Pèlerinage was also preserved : the reliquary, the chapel, the Basilica, and also Les Buissonets even though they were surrounded by many bombs some of which never exploded.

As soon as Lisieux was freed you could see the people flocking back to the Pèlerinage which was even more touching considering the lack of transport.  

Let us quote this old lady who came from the Falaise region with her daughter, barefoot: “We had made the promise to come on pilgrimage to Saint Thérèse if we were saved. We did not know what was left of Lisieux, but it did not matter. We would only have prayed on the stones of the Carmel if the convent had been destroyed.”On these material ruins, roses of grace for our church and for the whole world, bloom again. 

 

A Witness from the period

I was at the time curate in a town called VILLEDIEU LES POELES. Life was slowly going back to normal after the liberation of August 1^st 1944. Convoys were crossing the town. The war was not over but we were rid of those awful bombings.  

One day an American soldier arrived at the presbytery, he was a jolly kind but could not speak a word of French. I understood he was a chaplain in the American army. He was making signs and kept repeating “little pictures…” 

I finally understood that he was looking for holy pictures to give out to his men. I went to the librarian who gave me all he had, mostly communion pictures. The American went through them one after another without comment. Suddenly, he stopped at one of them, waved it in the air and declared joyously “Good! Good! The little flower!” 

That was the one he’d been looking for :  for all of those men, facing danger and who had left far behind them their loved ones, the chaplain wanted to give a picture of the one he called “the little flower”.