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May-sur-Orne

J

jcjseguin

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Looking for information re. friendly fire (read accidental bombing) of FMR troops near May-sur_Orne on Aug 8, 1944 which resulted in the death of my uncle, among others, as well as numerous Polish troops.
 
There were two separate cases of friendly fire bombing of Allied troops on 7/8 August 1944. In the first, which happened near May-sur-Orne, the bombing pattern was scattered. The following extract from No Holding Back, p. 204 should be of interest,

"This time, with hundreds of tons of bombs due to fall on the village, the Fusiliers Mont-Royal would attack without the support of either, relyig on the bombing to destroy the enemy resistance. The reliance on air power was misplaced because May-sur-Orne

      appeared to have received only a slight attack; some bombs had obviously fallen in the fields near St. Martin de Fontenay to the north of the target but even so the number of craters was nowhere near the 1112 which was te number of bombs said to have been used in this attack.

 
Further to my last, the extract continues:

"The following points were made by officers who were concerned in this attack. The flares had just faded out when the bombers arrived. Some bombs fell short among the men who were waiting to advance; this caused confusion and did not improve their morale. It was suggested that whereas in daylight attacks our forward troops were able to see the planes unload their bombs and fire their rockets, at night they do not see any suich heartening spectacle but merely hear the bombs descend and wonder where the next ones will fall."

The other attack fell on Canadian, British and Polish troops in the area around the southern suburbs of Caen in the early afternoon of the 8th.

I suggest that the first incident is the one you are interested in.
 
I'd heartily recommend buying NO HOLDING BACK as this is examined in detail there.  I believe Terry Copp wrote on this subject in CANADIAN MILITARY HISTORY QUARTERLY also.
 
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