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The aviation played a key role in the Allied victory in Normandy.It
should be said that the Allied air forces enjoyed an overwhelming
superiority over the Germans, with 11,000 aircraft at their disposal.
The Luftwaffe, on the other hand, had only a tenth of that number
available – a little more than a thousand aircraft ‑ and had to content
itself with putting in sporadic appearances in the skies above Normandy,
only showing any real activity under cover of darkness.
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Re-arming a
Thunderbolt fighter-bomber at an American aerodrome in Normandy |
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The heavy bombers of the RAF’s Bomber Command and the Eighth US Air
Force continued to destroy roads and rail junctions in the days that
followed the Landings in order to delay the arrival of German
reinforcements. They were also used to “soften up” the enemy by carrying
out carpet-bombing missions during major offensives, as was the case
before the launch of Operations Charnwood, Goodwood and Cobra. |
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A B-24 Liberator on
a bombing mission above the Plain of Caen |
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However, the most important role was without doubt that played by the
tactical aviation, in tirelessly supporting the troops fighting on the
ground. The indefatigable activity of fighters and fighter bombers
belonging to the Second British Tactical Air Force and the Ninth US Air
Force was one of the main reasons for the Allied victory. The
construction – begun in the hours following the Landings – of at least
fifty aerodromes on Norman soil, mainly in the Cotentin and Bessin
regions, enabled them to extend their intervention capability still
further. |
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An
A-20 Havoc medium bomber in the skies above the Cotentin Peninsula |
Spitfires, Thunderbolts, Mustangs, Lightnings and
Typhoons held the skies above Normandy, dive-bombing even the smallest
concentration of German troops, remorselessly attacking enemy convoys,
sowing death and terror on the roads. These, for example, were the
aircraft which single-handedly smashed the Germans’ counter-attack at
Mortain in the early days of August 1944. |
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An
airfield under construction in the British sector. (IWM) |
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