History of Normandy – WWI, Interwar & 20th-Century Manche (WWII Without the D-Day Parts)
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First published: December 2025
Welcome back to our Normandy history saga — where every century ends with Manche giving a quiet nod and raised eyebrow suggesting that's another one survived.
As we left the 19th century behind, the Manche was strutting into the modern age. Education reforms had filled classrooms; cooperatives strengthened dairy farming; granite quarries carved the stone that built half of western Normandy; and coastal towns were flirting shamelessly with the pleasures of seaside life. Telegraphs hummed, steam trains hissed, and the département — known for being delightfully resistant to anything Paris thinks up — was adapting to new ideas with calm practicality and its trademark dose of side-eye.
By 1900, Manche life felt steady, prosperous and quietly optimistic. Villages bustled with fairs and markets; farmers modernised tools and grazing systems; fishermen upgraded to sturdier hulls; and Granville was busy reinventing itself as the sort of seaside town where you could both cure your nerves and show off your fanciest holiday hat.
But the glow of this Belle Époque didn’t last. The Manche stepped into the new century with sunshine, postcards and seaside promenades… and within a decade, Europe was tumbling toward war.
So grab a coffee, a calva, or both (or even pour the calva into the coffee?). The 20th century is warming up — and Manche is about to prove, once again, that resilience runs through this land like the hedgerows themselves.
1900–1914: A Manche in Motion
The early 20th century felt like a gift — a moment when Normandy breathed easier, lived larger, and flirted openly with modernity.
🚂 Trains, Roads & New Connections
Railways were already revolutionising life. The Paris–Granville line opened in 1870, but by the early 1900s it had become the beating artery of the département. Farmers could sell beyond their canton. Holidaymakers could arrive with trunks full of enthusiasm. Students, soldiers, merchants and musicians all travelled with a freedom unimaginable a generation earlier.
Then came 1908 and the spectacular trains de plaisir — cheerful summer excursion trains linking Granville, Avranches and Sourdeval. Saint-Pair-sur-Mer became a fashionable stop, complete with villas, cafés and parasols galore.
Road improvements followed, along with better postal routes and buzzing telegraph stations. Manche wasn’t rushing — it was strolling confidently into a new era.
🌊 The Rise of Seaside Normandy
The coast was booming — not quietly, not modestly, but with joyful seaside swagger.
Granville led the way:
- The Plat-Gousset promenade dazzled visitors with sea views and stylish crowds.
- Grand hotels — the Normandy, the Hôtel des Bains — welcomed fashionable Parisians.
- Bathing culture shifted from medical cure to full-blown lifestyle.
- Clifftop villas combined Norman charm with more than a hint of British seaside inspiration than their neighbours ever admitted to.
Nearby towns joined the coastal renaissance:
- Donville-les-Bains embraced its spa identity.
- Saint-Pair-sur-Mer built whimsical chalet-style villas in polychrome delight.
- Jullouville emerged as Normandy’s “new” resort — built from scratch with elegant lanes and holiday villas.
- Carolles attracted painters, writers and Parisians eager for cliff walks and artistic breezes.
📚 Culture, Classrooms & Daily Life
Schools flourished thanks to 19th-century reforms. The Norman Patois still reigned in kitchens and barns, while the French language that we know today ruled the paperwork. Market days bustled. Dairy farms upgraded tools. Fishermen experimented with new rigs. Photographers sold seaside portraits. Postcard vendors made small fortunes.
Life was calm, confident, and looking forward. Until August 1914.
1914: War Arrives & Manche Steels Itself
War arrived on paper first — mobilisation notices pinned to church doors, mairie walls and station entrances. Then it arrived in the eyes of families waving off sons, brothers and husbands from platforms in Granville, Coutances, Avranches and Saint-Lô.
The Manche did what the Manche always does — adapted, complained a bit, shared a calva, and carried on.
🐎 Requisitioning Shakes the Countryside
Horses were the engines of farm life. When the army requisitioned them for transport and artillery, it tore through rural life like a storm. Fields were slower to plough. Deliveries faltered. Market days grew thinner.
Telegraph posts, postal routes and coastal viewpoints shifted under military control. Fishing zones tightened. Even far from the front, Manche felt the pressure.
⚠️ A Strange Wartime Incident: The 1914 German Raid
Though Normandy was spared battle, France was shaken by a bizarre German commando raid in September 1914. Their goal: blow up the bridges at Oissel and Elbeuf to disrupt rail lines. The attack failed — but it rattled nerves across northern France and reminded even distant regions like the Manche that the war could take unexpected shapes.
🇧🇪 Refugees Flood In — Manche Opens Its Doors
When Germany invaded Belgium, thousands fled south. Manche received many refugees — especially via Cherbourg and Granville.
Between 1914 and 1917, the département sheltered 10,758 refugees from northern and eastern France, followed by another 15,095 in 1918. In addition, the département welcomed around 5,000 Belgian civilians.
Their presence reshaped the region:
- Classrooms adapted to new dialects and unfamiliar names.
- Workshops gained skilled hands needed to replace mobilised men.
- Markets and cafés became multilingual overnight.
- Villages learned to stretch supplies, share homes, and quietly carry one another.
Some refugees stayed permanently, becoming part of the Manche’s living memory.
⚓ Manche at War: Ports, Industry & Daily Strain
While Normandy remained far from the front, its coastline and industries were thrust into essential roles. Cherbourg, especially, became a major logistical artery:
- Simon Frères (Cherbourg) produced shells and artillery components.
- Dior factories (Granville) manufactured parts for gas-warfare equipment.
- Coal shortages forced steamships into irregular patterns.
- Foreign troops — Belgians, Poles, Portuguese and later Americans — were stationed throughout the département.
Streets filled with unfamiliar uniforms. Boarding houses became barracks. Workshops shifted from peacetime goods to wartime machinery. Manche’s peaceful rhythm hardened into something sturdier, grittier, and unavoidably changed.
🪖 The Adrian Helmet: Innovation That Saved a Million Lives
General Louis-Auguste Adrian — whose influence reached deep across northern France — transformed modern warfare in 1915 with the introduction of the Adrian helmet.
Before his design, French soldiers went to battle wearing cloth kepis. Adrian’s lightweight steel helmet slashed shrapnel deaths dramatically — saving an estimated one million lives.
Manche adopted the helmet quickly through its depots, training grounds and coastal defensive points. Today, the Adrian remains a powerful symbol of ingenuity born from necessity.
⛓️ POWs, Labour & Civilian Internment
War reshaped Manche’s landscapes in unexpected ways:
- Cherbourg held enormous numbers of German POWs — up to 50,000 prisoners by 1918–1919.
- Mortain quarries used German labour.
- Coutances employed Bulgarian prisoners.
- Saint-Lô built a POW camp on the Ronchettes racecourse.
Even more striking were the detention centres for German and Austro-Hungarian civilians classed as “undesirables”:
- Chausey detained 617 internees who repaired slipways, buildings and the island’s school.
- Tatihou hosted another civilian internment camp.
- Granville converted the old rope factory into housing for civilian detainees.
These islands and towns — usually associated with fishing, seaweed harvesting and seaside walks — took on darker wartime roles.
🔚 War’s End: Relief, Grief & A Changed Manche
WWI never reached Manche as a battlefield, but it carved deep wounds. More than 10,000 Manchois died. Every commune — even tiny villages like Nicorps — erected a monument aux morts listing sons who never came home.
Families grieved in silence. Farms struggled without their young men. Women carried entire communities on their backs. And yet, inch by inch, life resumed.
😷 1918–1919: The Spanish Flu Ravages Manche
Just as church bells rang for peace, a new horror arrived: the Spanish Flu. Coastal regions like Manche suffered heavily:
- ports circulated infection quickly,
- returning soldiers carried aggressive viral strains home,
- medical staff were exhausted after four years of war,
- rural areas had few doctors.
Some villages lost more residents to influenza than to the trenches. Schools closed. Families isolated themselves. Priests performed funerals in shifts. It was a quieter catastrophe — but a profound one.
1919–1939: Peace, Revival & the Golden Age of Seaside Manche
When the guns finally fell silent, Manche households emerged into a fragile peace. Grief lingered, but so did determination. The interwar years became a moment of rebuilding, rekindling and rediscovering joy — especially along the coast.
🌞 Tourism Returns — Stronger Than Before
The 1920s and 30s saw the Manche coastline shine brighter than ever. Granville, Saint-Pair-sur-Mer, Donville-les-Bains, Jullouville and Carolles all embraced the renewed appetite for seaside leisure.
Visitors flocked to:
- wide sandy beaches lined with colourful bathing cabins,
- promenades built for strolling and people-watching,
- seaside cafés serving galettes and cold drinks to sunburnt Parisians,
- coastal villas that mixed Normandy stone with carefree architectural whimsy.
Granville, in particular, hummed with life. Its cliff walks, terrace cafés and postcard-perfect views became magnets for visitors seeking sea air and a little glamour.
🎭 1920: Granville Carnival Reawakens
If one event symbolised Normandy’s return to joy, it was the reawakening of the Granville Carnival in February 1920. Silenced during the war, it came back with the energy of a community determined to laugh again.
Floats rolled through the streets with biting political satire. Musicians filled the air with brass and mischief. Confetti drifted down like celebratory snow. Fishermen danced beside factory workers. Children wore costumes stitched from scraps.
It wasn’t just a festival — it was a declaration: life continues here.
Read our Granville Carnival blog
🏖️ The Interwar Rhythm: 1920s–1930s Manche Comes Alive
Between the world wars, the Manche found a new rhythm — practical, creative and quietly confident. The département felt more connected than ever, thanks to efficient rail links, expanding postal networks and steadily improving roads.
The coast blossomed culturally. Inland villages modernised. Cinemas opened in Coutances, Avranches and Granville, bringing newsreels, comedies, romances and glimpses of life far beyond the bocage. Teachers found classrooms fuller than ever. Markets boomed. Dairy farms experimented with early mechanisation and better refrigeration.
It was a period of relative stability — a Manche stretching comfortably into the modern world.
👗 Dior in Granville: A Childhood That Shaped a Legend
Long before Christian Dior revolutionised Parisian fashion, he was a quiet child wandering the gardens of Villa Les Rhumbs in Granville. The house — with its symmetry, pastel colours, rose gardens and dramatic sea views — shaped his understanding of beauty long before he sketched a single dress.
During the interwar years, the Dior family home remained one of the jewels of Granville’s Haute Ville. Its refined atmosphere echoed through Dior’s later work: soft lines, coastal light, elegance rooted in nature. Even as he moved away, the Manche coastline left an indelible imprint on his artistic eye.
🏰 Cambernon Square — A Story in Stone
Climbing into Granville’s Haute Ville brings you to Place Cambernon — once a bustling medieval market, now a peaceful square holding centuries of stories. A plaque marks the historical connection between the Matignon family and Monaco, a reminder that Granville’s heritage extends far beyond its cliffs.
Not scandal — simply lineage, legacy and the ways Normandy quietly intersects with European history in the most unexpected places.
1939–1945: Manche Under Occupation (Without the D-Day Parts)
Now we step into WWII — without the D-Day landings, because those live in their own blog category:
Explore our D-Day & WWII blogs
Here, we focus on everything else the Manche lived intensely: occupation, fear, solidarity, resistance and the quiet everyday courage of ordinary people.
⚠️ 1940: German Arrival
German forces entered the Manche in June 1940. New rules appeared on mairie doors. Flags changed overnight. Radios were confiscated or controlled. Movement along the coast tightened under surveillance.
Fishing families faced interrogations and restricted access to traditional waters. Farmers dealt with requisition officers demanding livestock, carts and produce. Shops adjusted prices under rationing; schools adapted under pressure. Daily life narrowed under occupation.
🕵️♂️ Resistance in the Bocage: Quiet, Clever & Deeply Manche
If there is one thing the bocage is built for, it’s secrecy. And secrecy became the lifeline of the Manche resistance.
Behind hedgerows and inside barns, people organised networks that Paris would never fully understand:
- hiding STO dodgers — young men refusing the Service du Travail Obligatoire (Compulsory Work Service in Germany) — in farm lofts and hay barns,
- guiding Allied pilots along sunken lanes invisible from above,
- cutting telephone lines and sabotaging rail tracks,
- printing clandestine papers in cafés and workshops,
- coordinating arms drops in isolated fields through coded announcements.
The BBC World Service became a secret ally. Communities gathered behind closed shutters — radios hidden under blankets or tucked in bread ovens — because listening to foreign broadcasts was strictly forbidden by the occupiers. Yet people leaned in anyway, barely breathing, as coded messages drifted across the Channel:
- “Le vent souffle sur la colline”
- “La chèvre a mangé mes pantoufles”
Each phrase meant something precise: tonight, prepare.
📰 1941: “Camille” Speaks in Le Granvillais
On 21 September 1941, an anonymous writer — signing only “Camille” — published a courageous article in Le Granvillais condemning Vichy’s anti-Jewish laws.
It circulated quietly through shops, cafés and households. It sparked whispered conversations and alarm. It reminded families to look out for one another. But it was dangerous — very dangerous — and did not go unnoticed by the occupiers.
📚 Maurice Marland: Teacher, Rebel, Local Legend
Some heroes carry rifles. Manche’s most remarkable hero carried lesson plans.
Maurice Marland, born in 1888, taught English, French and civics — a man who believed deeply in equality and citizenship. When war engulfed Normandy, he transformed those principles into action.
He:
- organised Belgian refugee reception in 1939,
- helped evacuate British troops through local channels,
- created escape routes to Jersey with Jules Leprince,
- built a resistance intelligence network tracking German activity in ports and railways.
Arrested and released twice, he carried on. In July 1944 he was captured again — this time betrayed by French collaborators — and executed in the Forest of La Lucerne.
Today, schools and streets bearing his name ensure his story is not forgotten.
🏰 The Atlantic Wall: Concrete on the Coast
By 1942, the German army began fortifying the coast with concrete — lots of it. The Atlantic Wall reshaped the Manche coastline dramatically.
- Gun casemates stared out over Barneville and Carteret.
- Observation posts watched the tides near Agon-Coutainville.
- Batteries fortified the approaches to Granville.
- Beaches that once hosted parasols became forbidden zones.
Farmers found trenches carved through fields. Children grew up beside bunkers. Daily life bent beneath the weight of militarisation.
💣 Saint-Lô: The Capital of Ruins
In early June 1944, Allied bombings devastated Saint-Lô — a strategic crossroads for German operations. Tragically, the evacuation warning never reached most inhabitants.
The destruction was almost total: 90% of the city vanished. Hospitals, archives, schools, shops, entire streets — all gone. The cathedral burned fiercely, later preserved as a deliberate reminder of loss.
Survivors described:
- embers falling “like black snow”,
- families trapped in cellars listening to the city collapse above,
- a silence afterwards that felt unreal.
When American troops reached the ruins weeks later, they found a city unrecognisable, but alive. Saint-Lô earned — and still carries — its title: La Capitale des Ruines.
1945 & Beyond: Liberation, Reconstruction & A New Manche
Liberation arrived gradually, town by town, field by field. Manche communities emerged from barns, cellars and safe houses to reclaim streets, rebuild homes, reopen farms and revive the life that had gone quiet under occupation.
- ports were repaired and reopened,
- schools rebuilt and expanded,
- farms modernised with new machinery,
- new industries established,
- tourism revived with eager optimism.
The Manche stepped forward — cautiously at first, then confidently — into the second half of the 20th century.
Conclusion: Manche Walks Through Fire — And Keeps Walking
From seaside glamour to two world wars, from coded messages in the bocage to cities reduced to rubble, Manche weathered the upheavals of the early 20th century the same way it has weathered every storm before — with grit, humour, stubborn resilience and a quiet determination to see the next sunrise.
And honestly, there’s nothing the Manchois like more than talking about the weather — especially after surviving this much of it.
In our final chapter of the Normandy history series, we step into the post-war decades and follow Manche into the world we know today: rebuilding, reinventing, modernising — and still giving that classic raised eyebrow to anything it doesn’t quite trust.