|
• Biarritz was not the only one to be bombarded on March 27, 1944.
It formed part of ETO Mission 282 which included also St Jean d' Angely,
La Rochelle, Chartres, Tours, Bordeaux. Cazaux, Pau and Mount-of-Marsan.
• The target was the airfield and not the city.
• 44 bombers B-24 "LIBERATORS", four-engine aircrafts, took part in the raid. 22 from 466th BG and 22 from the 458th BG, based respectively in Attlebridge and Horsham St Faith (Norwich), East Anglia, England.
• Planes were painted in dark brown-green and not metal silver colour.
• All the planes safely returned at their base. "OH MONA" landed on the belly and never flew again.
• Coming from North over the sea, on its arrival, the formation carried out a very tight turn East, to put itself in the axis of the airfield.
• It only carried out but only one single West/East passage, always in formation. After dropping their bombs, they turned left to start their return trip, passing over St Vincent de Tyrosse, before reached the sea at Mimizan.
• No plane, at any time, separated from the formation.
• 389th BG, 445th BG, 453rd BG, made up exclusively of B-24 LIBERATORS entered by the Bar of Bayonne about 14h15 going East to bomb Pau - Pont Long airfield. The movie actor James Stewart was the pilot of one of the 453rd BG’s planes.
• No "FLYING FORTRESS" (B 17) flew over Biarritz that day . (Not enough operating range).
• No flare was used. The witnesses who saw one in the sky, red or white, saw in fact, the explosion of one of the bombs released by the "OH MONA" which was detonated in the air, by a German FLAK shell at approximately 100 feet below the ship.
• Alarm was given at 14h15.
• Germans seem to have been alerted a few minutes before allowing them to put Flak in action as from the arrival of the allied planes.
• Mrs Duhart, Mr. Latécoer’s secretary, was advised, by telephone, by the German authorities of Bordeaux, a few minutes before the alarm, to take all required measures in the Anglet factory, “ an English bombardment being imminent.”
(Anglet Latécoer factory was making aircraft spare pieces for the Germans)
|
