Rape during the liberation of France

American atrocities during World War II

U.S. soldiers committed acts of rape against French women during and after the liberation of France in the later stages of World War II. The sociologist J. Robert Lilly of Northern Kentucky University estimates that 4,500 instances of sexual assault had been transgressed by U.S servicemen in France from June 1944 to the end of the war in May 1945.

## Background

[edit]

The invasion of Normandy in June and a second invasion in the south in August, put over two million front line and support troops of the Western Allies into France in 1944.

The Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August and the majority of German troops had been pushed back to the Siegfried Line by the end of 1944. After the war, the repatriation for demobilization of the troops took time. Even in 1946, months after VE-day, there were still about 1.5 million troops in Europe.[1]

Life magazine reported the widespread view among American troops of France as "a tremendous brothel inhabited by 40 million hedonists who spent all their time eating, drinking, making love, and, in general, having a hell of a good time".[2][3]

## French complaints

[edit]

Normandy region

By the late summer of 1944, soon after the invasion of Normandy, women in Normandy began to report numerous instances of sexual violence by American soldiers.[4] Hundreds of cases were reported.[5]

In 1945, after the end of the war in Europe, Le Havre was filled with American servicemen awaiting return to the States. A Le Havre citizen wrote to the mayor that the people of Le Havre were "attacked, robbed, run over both on the street and in our houses" and "This is a regime of terror, imposed by bandits in uniform."[4] A coffeehouse owner from Le Havre testified, "We expected friends who would not make us ashamed of our defeat. Instead, there came only incomprehension, arrogance, incredibly bad manners and the swagger of conquerors."[6] Such behavior also was common in Cherbourg. There existed a local saying that "With the Germans, the men had to camouflage themselves—but with the Americans, we had to hide the women."[5]

U.S. troops committed 208 acts of rape and about 30 murders in the department of Manche.[7]

## U.S. military response

[edit]

A brothel, the "Blue and Gray Corral", was set up near the village of St. Renan in September 1944 by Major General Charles H. Gerhardt, commander of the 29th Infantry Division, partly to counter a wave of rape accusations against American soldiers. It was shut down after a mere five hours in order to prevent civilians in the United States from finding out about a military-run brothel.[8]

The Free French Forces high command sent a letter of complaint to the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D. Eisenhower.[9] He gave his commanders orders to take action against all allegations of murder, rape, assault, robbery and other crimes.[9] In August 1945, Pierre Voisin, mayor of Le Havre urged Colonel Thomas Weed, U.S. commander in the region, to set up brothels outside Le Havre.[5] However, U.S. commanders refused.[5]

White American soldiers were not executed for rape. 130 of the 180 troops charged with rape by the Army in France were African American. U.S. forces executed 29 soldiers for rape, 25 of them African American.[10] Some convictions against African Americans were based on circumstantial evidence. For example, Marie Lepottevin identified William Downes only because he was "much larger" than the other soldiers.[11][12]

## Historical Retrospective

[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013)

|

According to Alice Kaplan, an American historian of France and chair of the Department of French at Yale University, the U.S. military tolerated rape of French women less than that of German women. She argued that the number of rape instances is well documented and is less than that of other Allied armies of era, writing that "Nine hundred and four American soldiers were tried for rape in Europe, and even if the actual numbers were much higher, they do not compare with a terrible legacy of World War II-era rape" committed, for example, by the Japanese in Nanking, by Germans in the German-occupied areas, by the French-Moroccans in Italy and by the Soviet soldiers across Eastern Europe and Germany.[13] J. Robert Lilly, Regents professor of sociology and criminology at Northern Kentucky University, reported in Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe in World War II his estimate that 14,000 instances of rape were committed by U.S. soldiers in France, Germany and the United Kingdom between 1942 and 1945.[14][15] More specifically, Lilly estimated that U.S. servicemen committed around 3,500 rapes in France between June 1944 and the end of the war.[10]

## See also

[edit]

* Wartime sexual violence

Allied forces

* Rape during the occupation of Poland
* Rape during the occupation of Germany
* Rape during the occupation of Japan
* Rape during the liberation of Serbia
* Rape during the occupation of Manchuria

Axis forces

* Comfort women
* German military brothels in World War II
* War crimes of the Wehrmacht#Rape
* Japanese war crimes#Rape

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Levenstein p90
2. ^ Harvey Levenstein (15 March 2010). We'll Always Have Paris: American Tourists in France since 1930. University of Chicago Press. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-0-226-47380-2. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
3. ^ Time Inc (10 December 1945). LIFE. Time Inc. pp. 20–. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
4. ^ a b Mathieu von Rohr (May 29, 2013). "'Bandits in Uniform': The Dark Side of GIs in Liberated France". Spiegel. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
5. ^ a b c d Faur, Fabienne (2013-05-26). "GIs were liberators yes, but also trouble in Normandy". Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-11.
6. ^ von Rohr, Mathieu (29 May 2013). "The Dark Side of GIs in Liberated France". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
7. ^ Wieviorka, Olivier (2010). Normandy: From the Landings to the Liberation of Paris. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 329\. ISBN 978-0674047471.
8. ^ "The Dark Side of Liberation". New York Times. May 20, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
9. ^ a b "When some liberators were criminals". CBS News. June 2, 2013. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
10. ^ a b Schofield, Hugh (5 June 2009). "Revisionists challenge D-Day story". BBC. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
11. ^ Roberts, Mary Louise (2013). What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. p. 210\. ISBN 978-0-226-92311-6.
12. ^ Seitz, David W. (September 2012). "Plot E, America's Burial Ground of Shame: A Photo Essay". Public Art Dialogue. 2 (2): 158–161\. doi:10.1080/21502552.2012.717792. ISSN 2150-2552.158-161&rft.date=2012-09&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080/21502552.2012.717792&rft.issn=2150-2552&rft.aulast=Seitz&rft.aufirst=David+W.&rft_id=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21502552.2012.717792&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Rape+during+the+liberation+of+France" class="Z3988">
13. ^ Alice Kaplan (30 August 2005). The Interpreter. Free Press. pp. 154–. ISBN 978-0-7432-7481-4. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
14. ^ Lilly, J. Robert. (2007) Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe in World War II. Palgrave Macmillan.
15. ^ Wilson, David (27 March 2007). "The secret war: We know that conflict creates conditions in which soldiers commit rape and murder. Why should American GIs in the 1940s be an exception?". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2018.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Virgili, Fabrice (2002). Shorn Women: Gender and Punishment in Liberation France. Berg Publishers. ISBN 1859735843.
* Lilly, J. Robert (2007). Taken by Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe in World War II. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-50647-3.
* Hitchcock, William (2009). The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe. Free Press. ISBN 978-1439123300.
* Roberts, Mary Louise (2013). What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France. The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226923116.
* Wieviorka, Olivier (2010). Normandy: From the Landings to the Liberation of Paris. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674047471.

## External links

[edit]

* Author Interview:Mary Louise Roberts, National Public Radio, May 31, 2013

* v
* t
* e

World War II

* Outline
* Battles
* Operations
* Leaders
* Allied
* Axis
* Commanders
* Casualties
* Conferences

General|

| Topics|

* Air warfare of World War II
* In Europe
* Blitzkrieg
* Comparative military ranks
* Cryptography
* Declarations of war
* Diplomacy
* Governments in exile
* Home front
* Australian
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Lend-Lease
* Manhattan Project
* British contribution
* Military awards
* Military equipment
* Military production
* Naval history
* Nazi plunder
* Opposition
* Technology
* Allied cooperation
* Mulberry harbour
* Total war
* Strategic bombing
* Puppet states
* Women
* Art and World War II
* Music in World War II
* Weather events during World War II

|

Theaters|

* Asia and Pacific
* China
* South-East Asia
* Pacific
* North and Central Pacific
* South-West Pacific
* Indian Ocean
* Europe
* Western Front
* Eastern Front
* Mediterranean and Middle East
* North Africa
* East Africa
* Italy
* West Africa
* Atlantic
* timeline
* Americas

Aftermath|

* Chinese Civil War
* Cold War
* Decolonization
* Division of Korea
* First Indochina War
* Expulsion of Germans
* Greek Civil War
* Indonesian National Revolution
* Keelhaul
* Marshall Plan
* Occupation of Germany
* Occupation of Japan
* Osoaviakhim
* Paperclip
* Soviet occupations
* Baltic
* Hungary
* Poland
* Romania
* Territorial changes of Germany
* Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
* United Nations

War crimes|

* Allied war crimes
* Soviet war crimes
* British war crimes
* United States war crimes
* German war crimes
* forced labour
* Wehrmacht war crimes
* The Holocaust
* Aftermath
* Response
* Nuremberg trials
* Italian war crimes
* Japanese war crimes
* Nanjing Massacre
* Unit 731
* Prosecution
* Croatian war crimes
* Genocide of Serbs
* Persecution of Jews
* Romanian war crimes
* Sexual violence
* German military brothels
* Camp brothels
* Rape during the occupation of Germany / Japan / Poland
* Rape during the liberation of France / Serbia
* Sook Ching
* Comfort women
* Rape of Manila
* Marocchinate

Participants|

| Allies|

* Algeria
* Australia
* Belgium
* Brazil
* Bulgaria (from September 1944)
* Canada
* China
* Cuba
* Czechoslovakia
* Denmark
* Ethiopia
* Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)
* Finland (from September 1944)
* France
* Free France
* Greece
* India
* Italy (from September 1943)
* Liberia
* Luxembourg
* Mexico
* Netherlands
* Newfoundland
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Philippines
* Poland
* Romania (from August 1944)
* Sierra Leone
* South Africa
* Southern Rhodesia
* Soviet Union
* Tuva
* United Kingdom
* British Empire
* United States
* Puerto Rico
* Yugoslavia

|

Axis|

* Albania protectorate
* Bulgaria (until September 1944)
* State of Burma
* Republic of China (Wang Jingwei)
* Independent State of Croatia
* Finland (until September 1944)
* German Reich
* Hungary
* Azad Hind
* Iraq
* Italy (until September 1943)
* Italian Social Republic
* Empire of Japan
* Manchukuo
* Mengjiang
* Philippines
* Romania (until August 1944)
* Slovak Republic
* Thailand
* Vichy France
* Guangzhouwan
* French Indochina
* French Madagascar
* Syria–Lebanon
* French North Africa
* French West Africa
* Collaboration

Neutral|

* Afghanistan
* Andorra
* Bhutan
* Ireland
* Liechtenstein
* Monaco
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Saudi Arabia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Tibet
* Turkey
* Vatican City
* Yemen

Resistance|

* Albania
* Austria
* Belgium
* Bulgaria
* Czech lands
* Denmark
* Dutch East Indies
* Estonia
* Ethiopia
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hong Kong
* Italy
* Japan
* Jews
* Korea
* Korean Liberation Army
* Korean Volunteer Army
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malaya
* Netherlands
* Northeast China
* Norway
* Philippines
* Poland
* Romania
* Thailand
* Soviet Union
* Slovakia
* Western Ukraine
* Vietnam
* Quốc dân Đảng
* Viet Minh
* Yugoslavia

POWs|

* Finnish prisoners in the Soviet Union
* German prisoners
* Soviet Union
* Azerbaijan
* United States
* United Kingdom
* Italian prisoners in the Soviet Union
* Japanese prisoners
* Soviet Union
* German atrocities against Polish POWs
* Soviet prisoners
* Finland
* atrocities by Germans
* Polish prisoners in the Soviet Union
* Romanian prisoners in the Soviet Union

Timeline|

| Prelude|

* Africa
* Second Italo-Ethiopian War
* Asia
* Second Sino-Japanese War
* Battles of Khalkhin Gol
* Europe
* Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
* Anschluss
* Munich Agreement
* Occupation of Czechoslovakia
* Operation Himmler
* Italian invasion of Albania

|

1939|

* Invasion of Poland
* Battle of the Atlantic
* Phoney War
* First Battle of Changsha
* Battle of South Guangxi
* Winter War
* 1939–1940 Winter Offensive

1940|

* Norwegian campaign
* German invasion of Denmark
* Battle of Zaoyang–Yichang
* German invasion of Luxembourg
* German invasion of the Netherlands
* German invasion of Belgium
* Battle of France
* Dunkirk evacuation
* Battle of Britain
* Battle of the Mediterranean
* North Africa
* West Africa
* British Somaliland
* Hundred Regiments Offensive
* Baltic states
* Eastern Romania
* Japanese invasion of French Indochina
* Italian invasion of Greece
* Compass

1941|

* Battle of South Henan
* Battle of Shanggao
* Invasion of Yugoslavia
* German invasion of Greece
* Battle of Crete
* Anglo-Iraqi War
* Battle of South Shanxi
* Syria–Lebanon campaign
* East African campaign
* Invasion of the Soviet Union
* Summer War
* Finland (Silver Fox)
* Lithuania
* Battle of Kiev
* Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
* Second Battle of Changsha
* Siege of Leningrad
* Battle of Moscow
* Bombing of Gorky
* Siege of Sevastopol
* Attack on Pearl Harbor
* Japanese invasion of Thailand
* Fall of Hong Kong
* Fall of the Philippines
* Battle of Guam
* Battle of Wake Island
* Malayan campaign
* Battle of Borneo
* Japanese invasion of Burma
* Third Battle of Changsha
* Greek famine of 1941–1944

1942|

* Fall of Singapore
* Battle of the Java Sea
* St Nazaire Raid
* Battle of Christmas Island
* Battle of the Coral Sea
* Battle of Madagascar
* Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign
* Battle of Gazala
* Battle of Dutch Harbor
* Battle of Midway
* Aleutian Islands campaign
* Kiska
* Attu
* Blue
* First Battle of El Alamein
* Battle of Stalingrad
* Kokoda Track campaign
* Rzhev
* Jubilee
* Second Battle of El Alamein
* Guadalcanal campaign
* Torch
* Chinese famine of 1942–1943

1943|

* Black May
* Tunisian campaign
* Battle of West Hubei
* Battle of Attu
* Bombing of Gorky
* Battle of Kursk
* Allied invasion of Sicily
* Smolensk
* Solomon Islands campaign
* Cottage
* Battle of the Dnieper
* Allied invasion of Italy
* Armistice of Cassibile
* Burma
* Northern Burma and Western Yunnan
* Changde
* Second Battle of Kiev
* Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
* Tarawa
* Makin
* Bengal famine of 1943

1944|

* Tempest
* Monte Cassino / Anzio
* Korsun–Cherkassy
* Narva
* U-Go
* Imphal
* Ichi-Go
* Kohima
* Overlord
* Neptune
* Mariana and Palau
* Bagration
* Western Ukraine
* Second Battle of Guam
* Tannenberg Line
* Warsaw Uprising
* Eastern Romania
* Liberation of Paris
* Dragoon
* Gothic Line
* Belgrade offensive
* Battle of San Marino
* Lapland
* Market Garden
* Estonia
* Crossbow
* Pointblank
* Vietnamese famine of 1944–1945
* Philippines (1944–1945)
* Leyte
* Syrmian Front
* Hungary
* Budapest
* Burma (1944–1945)
* Ardennes
* Bodenplatte
* Dutch famine of 1944–1945

1945|

* Vistula–Oder
* Battle of Manila
* Battle of Iwo Jima
* Indochina
* Vienna offensive
* Project Hula
* Western invasion of Germany
* Bratislava–Brno offensive
* Battle of Okinawa
* Second Guangxi campaign
* West Hunan
* Italy (Spring 1945)
* Battle of Berlin
* Prague offensive
* Surrender of Germany
* document
* Borneo
* Taipei
* Naval bombardment of Japan
* Manchuria
* Atomic bombings
* Debate
* South Sakhalin
* Kuril Islands
* Shumshu
* Surrender of Japan
* Potsdam Declaration
* document
* End of World War II in Asia

* World portal
* Bibliography
* Category

* v
* t
* e

Liberation of France

* Belgium
* Italy
* Luxembourg
* Netherlands
* Norway

Forces|

* Army of Africa
* Commando Kieffer
* First Army
* Cavalry Corps
* 3rd Army Corps
* 4th
* 5th
* 1st Armored
* 32nd Infantry
* Francs-Tireurs et Partisans
* French Forces of the Interior
* French Liberation Army
* French Expeditionary Corps Divisions:
* 1st Free French
* 2nd Moroccan Infantry
* 3rd Algerian Infantry
* 4th Moroccan Mountain
* Second Army
* French Forces of the West

Leaders|

* Charles de Gaulle
* Jean Moulin
* Winston Churchill
* Bernard Montgomery
* Henri Giraud
* Dwight D. Eisenhower
* Raymond O. Barton
* George S. Patton
* Philippe Leclerc
* Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
* Philippe Kieffer

Administration|

* Empire Defense Council
* French Civil and Military High Command
* French National Committee
* French Committee of National Liberation
* Provisional Consultative Assembly
* Provisional Government

French
campaign|

| Nov 1940|

* Battle of Gabon

|

Jun 1941|

* Syria–Lebanon campaign

Dec 1941|

* Capture of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Nov 1942|

* Operation Torch
* Tunisian campaign
* Battle of Réunion

Sept 1943|

* Liberation of Corsica

Jan 1944|

* Battle of Vercors
* Battle of Glières

March 1944|

* Liberation of Limousin

May 1944|

* Battle of Mont Mouchet

Jun 1944|

* Operation Overlord
* Battle of Carentan
* Battle of Cherbourg
* Battle for Caen
* Liberation of Limousin
* Tulle massacre
* Liberation of Guéret [fr]
* Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
* Maquis de Saint-Marcel
* Maquis de Saffré
* Battle of Ushant

July 1944|

* Liberation of Saint-Lô
* Battle of Mont Gargan [fr]
* Operation Cobra

Aug 1944|

* Battle for Brittany
* Rennes
* Saint-Malo
* Liberation of Brest
* Atlantic pockets:
* Lorient
* Saint-Nazaire
* Lioran [fr]
* Égletons [fr]
* Battle of Port Cros
* Battle of La Ciotat
* Provence landings
* Liberation of Toulon
* Liberation of Marseille
* Liberation of Paris
* Maillé massacre
* Liberation of Guéret [fr]
* Battle of Montélimar [fr]
* Liberation of Nice [fr]

Sept 1944|

* Liberation of Nancy
* Operation Astonia
* Operation Undergo
* Atlantic pockets:
* La Rochelle
* Royan
* Dunkirk
* Battle of Arracourt
* Battle of Meximieux [fr]

Nov 1944 -
March 1945|

* Battle of Alsace
* Liberation of Strasbourg
* Colmar Pocket
* Bitche [fr]

Apr 1945|

* Atlantic pockets:
* Royan

May 1945|

* Atlantic pockets:
* Dunkirk
* La Rochelle
* Lorient
* Saint-Nazaire

Aftermath|

* End of Vichy
* 1945 municipal elections
* Advance to the Rhine
* Invasion of Germany
* End of World War II in Europe
* Victory in Europe Day
* Victory Day
* Provisional Government
* Épuration légale
* Épuration sauvage
* Tripartisme
* 1946 legislative election
* Fourth Republic
* Trente Glorieuses
* Trial of Philippe Pétain
* Klaus Barbie trial

* WW II theatres:
* Atlantic
* Western Front
* Eastern Front
* Mediterranean and Middle East
* Pacific
* Sino Japanese

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template