The ruins left behind after warfare speak a language of their own. Even more strikingly, perhaps, no matter where the conflict has taken place —northern Europe or the Pacific, the Middle East or Central Africa — the vernacular of destruction is often the same. Buildings reduced to rubble and dust. A scarred, tortured landscape nearly devoid of life, aside from small human forms trying to piece it back together. Twisted, rusting steel. Burned, abandoned vehicles. And always, above it all, the indifferent sky.
These color photographs made in northwest France by LIFE photographer Frank Scherschel — most of which never ran in LIFE — detail the devastating impact of the Normandy invasion and its aftermath. The impulse behind building this gallery, meanwhile, is really no more complicated than this: to commemorate the Allied troops who fought and died; to honor those who fought and lived; and to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day by remembering what happened to countless towns — and townspeople — in France and around the globe when a world war unleashed hell in the midst of their lives.
[WATCH: ‘Behind the Picture: Robert Capa’s D-Day’]
Ruins, northwestern France, summer 1944, after D-Day.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAmerican troops clear wreckage in Saint-Lô, Normandy, 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSaint-Lô, Normandy, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesDestroyed town in northwest France, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesArmored vehicles on the move past civic buildings in Avranches, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAmerican troops in courtyard of ruined building, northwestern France, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPost-D-Day destruction, northern France, 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesJeeps (including a press vehicle) in the town square, Marigny (Manche), Normandy, 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesRuined tank near St. Gilles (or perhaps Hambye), France, 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAmerican troops, northwestern France, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesRuins of a town in northwestern France, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesRuined tank near St. Gilles (or perhaps Hambye), France, 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesUnloading vehicles and supplies from an LST (landing ship, tank) at Normandy beachhead, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAn amphibious "duck" comes ashore from its landing craft, Normandy, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesBeached shipping, Allied beachhead, Normandy, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesRuined building and sign in French and German, northwestern France, summer 1944.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
