In the evening of June 6^th 1944, Allied strategic bombers were given the mission to destroy a large number of towns and villages in Lower Normandy in order to delay the arrival of German reinforcements along the coast.

   However, the cloud cover was low and the mission was sometimes carried out in some confusion. This is how American airmen came to mistake Flers for Argentan, deluging it with bombs which were not intended for it– at least, not on that particular day.

   Around a hundred bodies were retrieved from the ruins.