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Like the navy,
the Allied aviation played a vital role in the operations which took
place on June 6th 1944.
Since spring,
it had been carrying out numerous operations over France, relentlessly
bombing aerodromes, radar stations, munitions dumps and the artillery
batteries of the Atlantic Wall, in order to weaken the Germans’
defensive capabilities prior to D-Day. It then turned its attention to
railway stations and road and rail bridges, in order to isolate Normandy
little by little from the rest of the country.
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B-17
Flying Fortresses on a bombing mission |
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By
the beginning of June 1944, General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander for Operation
Overlord, had more than 11,000 aircraft of every kind at his disposal, placed
under the responsibility of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory. The
Germans had fewer than a thousand aircraft to send against them, and this
massive imbalance would be one of the keys to Allied success on D-Day. |
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The effect of the aerial
bombardments on Longues Battery |
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In the night
of June 5th-6th, while transport planes were
dropping thousands of paratroops over Normandy, the heavy four-engined
’planes of the RAF’s Bomber Command were dropping 5,300 tonnes of bombs
on the ten German coastal batteries judged to be the most dangerous. At
dawn, this job was taken over by the bombers of the Eight and Ninth US
Air Forces. |
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A B-26
"Marauder" patrolling the skies above the landing zone |
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All day long on June 6th, the Allied aviation, now the
masters of the sky, made endless sorties. Fighters and fighter bombers
provided tactical support for the troops on the ground, while bombers
attempted to destroy communication hubs in order to delay the arrival of
German reinforcements at the front. Stations and bridges were
systematically attacked. The centre of Caen was ravaged by bombs in the
early afternoon. In the evening of June 6th and overnight,
ten towns in Lower Normandy were pitilessly destroyed, resulting in the
deaths of hundreds of civilians ‑ men, women and children alike. |
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A
squadron of "Mustang" fighters |
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