Hell for civilians in tunnels told anew with virtual reality
CAEN, France — The emotion of being liberated from Nazi occupation was so sweet and intense that the French refugees burst into song, a spontaneous rendition of “La Marseillaise” that echoed around the underground network of dank, dark tunnels where they had been sheltering for weeks since D-Day, amid filth, fleas and the rumble of bombs.
A girl of just 11 in that worldchanging summer of 1944, when the Allied liberation of western Europe began, Yvette Lethimonnier, recalls with vivid clarity how their saviors, a unit of Canadian troops, saluted when they found the refugees in their cavernous hiding place. Even the most elderly clambered to their feet, roused by the thrill of sudden freedom. All their voices joined in belting out the rousing words of the French anthem: “Arise children of the fatherland, the day of glory has arrived!”
“It was such a deliverance, infinite happiness,” the now 86-year-old Lethimonnier said. “In fact, every time I hear ‘La Marseillaise,’ it has an indescribable effect on me. Because I see my father again, in the quarry, singing it.”
Without the huge underground stone quarries that sheltered thousands of people in and around the city of Caen, a major objective of the Allied force that landed on beaches to the north on June 6, 1944, the civilian toll of roughly 20,000 French dead in the battle for Normandy might have been steeper still.
When World War II veterans gather with leaders of stillgrateful Allied nations in Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day to remember the feats and sacrifices, there’ll also be lower-key ceremonies to honor civilian casualties. Even now, the work of understanding how civilians in Normandy suffered through and survived their liberation continues. Archaeologists using laser scanners are mapping the quarry where Lethimonnier and other families found refuge in the outskirts of Caen, shedding new light on an under-explored aspect of D-Day history dominated by Allied military exploits.
The cavern, inaccessible to the public, is one of the bestpreserved makeshift bombshelters in Caen, a 1944 timecapsule filled with traces of the civilians who hid there and their ordeals. The long-rotten remains of straw beds amid the puddles and gooey mud eloquently speak of the extreme discomfort the refugees endured.
The extreme precision of laser mapping is allowing programmers to computer-generate 3-D visualizations of the underground space and its abandoned objects, preserving the history. When posted online, possibly next year, the 3-D modeling will allow viewers to virtually tour the cavern.