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In honor of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, France, we follow the modern-day Monuments Men and Women—the 38G/6V Heritage & Preservation Officers of the US Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) (USACAPOC)—to the very same cultural sites that their World War II predecessors protected and preserved some eight decades ago. As we report on the movements of the 38G/6V Heritage & Preservation Officers traversing the departments of Normandy during this special anniversary, we’ll look back on the history of the Monuments Officers of World War II and their efforts to save France’s cultural heritage.
PREPARATIONS
From its offices in the National Gallery of Art, the Roberts Commission transmitted maps and lists of important cultural sites to the armed forces in the theater. This is a result of scholarly work undertaken by two civilian organizations established in the United States before the Commission: the American Defense—Harvard Group and the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). This information was distributed to some of the earliest MFAA staff in the theater who were attached to Civil Affairs planning operations.
In early 1944, with MFAA operations well underway in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, the Allies turned their attention to Operation Overlord and the impending landings and advancement of Allied armies in western, continental Europe—and forthcoming need to protect and preserve its cultural heritage. The MFAA’s organization is finalized under the Civil Affairs section of the Operations Branch, SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force). Separated into the Functional Group and Country Sections, these two Civil Affairs components stationed in western England conducted the planning stages of the MFAA field operations to come in the countries where the Allies would engage the enemy in combat, including France.
Activated in early March 1944, the MFAA’s French County Unit moved from Shrivenham to London the following month. It consisted of two American MFAA Officers, Captain Walker K. Hancock and Captain L. Bancel LaFarge. These officers revised sections of the Civil Affairs Field Handbook for France and vetted the information transmitted from the civilian groups to create the “Official Lists of Protected Monuments” for the country, in addition to preparing charts and liaising with French fine art officials. The handbooks would be instructional but carry the authority of a military order. The lists of monuments served to recognize those monuments and sites that should be exempt from military use and given special consideration toward their preservation. Simultaneously, information was provided to Air Command to guide policy for strategic bombing that would spare cultural sites as well.
"We should be fighting in the territory of our friends, and it was essential that the policy in respect to historic monuments should be binding for all Allied personnel, and not merely an instruction to Civil Affairs officers."
–Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (1946), 101.
COMBAT PHASE
The invasion of the northwestern continental Europe was launched by British, Canadian, and American forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It triggered the advance of the Allies through France and eventual collapse of Nazi Germany. This phase of MFAA operations during combat was under the direction of SHAEF, its missions, and its army groups and armies.
Despite intense fighting in the Normandy-Brittany region, damage to historic monuments was less severe than expected, in part due to the speed of military operations. The first MFAA officer to reach France was Captain LaFarge, who carried out his first inspection on June 15. He was soon joined by Lieutenant George L. Stout and Squadron Leader John E. Dixon-Spain in July, to deal with the areas opened up by First US Army. Captain Robert K. Posey would join MFAA field operations that month as well, in anticipation of the Third US Army’s advance. Captain Ralph Hammett and Second Lieutenant James J. Rorimer are sent to the Communications Zone to cover the rear areas left in the wake of the advancing armies. Rorimer was the last Monuments Man to arrive in France during the major combat operations in Normandy, on August 3.
These MFAA Officers, later joined by others, were to locate and inspect sites for reporting and further mitigate damage with emergency repairs. They acted in an advisory capacity to French officials, who would become responsible for the long-term care and repair of these monuments and sites, at times assisting however they could.
NORMANDY – THE DEPARTMENT OF CALVADOS
In the initial phase, when army positions stalled not too far inland from the coast, Captain LaFarge was able to thoroughly inspect the restricted area of the liberators. He traveled to Bayeux and Caen, where he liaised with local officials and received high commendation from his superiors for his work.
On the third day of their 80th Anniversary of D-Day Celebrations tour, MAJ(P) Jason Campbell, 38G Program Manager, and CPT William Welsh and COL Andrew Scott DeJesse of the 38G/6V Heritage & Preservation unit, USACAPOC, visited sites in Caen and Bayeux, including the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, burial site of William the Conqueror, and the Bayeux Cathedral.
"Caen was the first large center of protracted and bitter fighting. Yet here, the two great medieval abbeys, founded by William the Conqueror and his wife Mathilda, are intact . . . the churches of St. Pierre and St. Jean were badly but not irreparably damaged; Notre-Dame-de-la-Gloriette is intact.”
–Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (1946), 98.
On the fifth and sixth days of their 80th Anniversary of D-Day Celebrations tour, the 38G/6V Heritage & Preservation Officers visited some of the first sites inspected by the Monuments Men, including Château de Fontaine-Henry, which was inspected by Captain LaFarge.
From left to right: Château de Fontaine-Henry in 1944; a card record of the inspection of the site conducted by Captain LaFarge from the Geographical Working Files of France; COL DeJesse and CPT Welsh stand in front of the château. US National Archives and Records Administration: RG 239, M1944, Roll 0077, NAID #1537270; RG 239, M1944, Roll 0111, NAID #1537270. Photo: COL Andrew Scott DeJesse.
NORMANDY – THE DEPARTMENT OF MANCHE
The MFAA Officers of the US First Army—American Lieutenant Stout and British Squadron Leader Dixon-Spain—divided and conquered their territory, Dixon-Spain taking the eastern part of the area on the borders of Calvados and Manche and Stout the northern and western part comprising the Cherbourg Peninsula. They were plagued with a common issue many MFAA Officers confronted—lack of transportation.
In the field, Dixon-Spain soon recognized that, aside from enemy fire, the greatest threat to monuments was the carelessness and curiosity of troops. He successfully petitioned for the printing and distribution of notices for posting at protected sites. In July 1944, Dixon-Spain submitted two proofs of these “Off Limits” signs for consideration. His suggestions were approved and printed notices were made available bearing the official signatures of General Eisenhower and Dixon-Spain.
On the seventh day of their 80th Anniversary of D-Day Celebrations tour, the 38G/6V Heritage & Preservation Officers were joined by Foundation founder and chairman Robert M. Edsel. The group visited the Church of Notre-Dame in Carentan.
COL DeJesse and Robert M. Edsel inside the Church of Notre-Dame in Carentan. From left to right: COL DeJesse, Robert M. Edsel, and CPT Welsh at the church’s entrance. Photos: COL Andrew Scott DeJesse.
From left to right: An image of the façade of the Église Notre Dame in Saint-Lô presented as Figure 28 in the Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (1946). Photo: ACLS Photo-Archive. “Off Limits” sign bearing the signatures of Dixon-Spain and Eisenhower. (US National Archives and Records Administration, RG 239, M1944; NAID #1537270). COL DeJesse and CPT Welsh affix a copy of Dixon-Spain’s “Off Limits” sign to the Église Notre Dame in Saint-Lô. (Photo: COL Andrew Scott DeJesse).
The façade of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Coutances. The cathedral withstood the ravages of war. From left to right: Figure 29 in the Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (1946). Photo: Signal Corps, and photo: COL Andrew Scott DeJesse.
On the ninth day of their 80th Anniversary D-Day Celebrations tour, the 38G/6V Heritage & Preservation Officers visited several sites in Valognes, Cherbourg, Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, and La Haye, including the Church of Saint-Malo de Valognes, the Abbey of Voeu, and the Abbey of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte. Many of these sites suffered damage during the war as detailed in Robert Edsel's The Monuments Men.
From left to right: Card records of the inspections of the Abbaye du Voeu and the Abbaye de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte from the Geographical Working Files of France. US National Archives and Records Administration: RG 239, M1944, Roll 0111, NAID #1537395; RG 239, M1944, Roll 0113, NAID #1537395; COL DeJesse and CPT Welsh at the Église Saint-Malo de Valognes; the Abbey of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte; CPT Welsh at the Abbey of Voeu. Photos: COL Andrew Scott DeJesse.
Second Lieutenant James J. Rorimer visited Mont Saint-Michel on August 18–19, 1944. Rorimer recounted his difficulties in reaching the remote location in his memoir, Survival. Describing himself as a “reluctant foot soldier,” he ultimately hailed a ride from a civilian, who had just retrieved his car that had been hidden in a haystack on a friend’s farm, to the causeway leading up to the mount.
"This was the one place on the Continent that was unguarded, undamaged, and open for business as usual . . . Each day more than a thousand soldiers came, drank as hard and as fast as they could, and, feeling the effects, became boisterous beyond the power of local control."
–Monuments Man (2022), 77–78.
From left to right: A watercolor painting of Mont Saint-Michel by American Monuments Man Captain Walter Huchthausen, the only American MFAA officer to be killed in action. He painted the famous landmark in 1931 as he first saw it. Gift of James Huchthausen, The Monuments Men and Women Foundation Collection, The National World War II Museum, New Orleans, LA. COL DeJesse and CPT Welsh in front of the causeway to Mont Saint-Michel. Photo: COL Andrew Scott DeJesse.
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