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• At 14h22 first bombs fell on the airfield of Parme. Biarritz city was bombarded soon after. This means that, some planes of the BG which was second on the target who released their bombs too short thus on the City.
• Witnesses confused the dropping of the bombs with their impact on the ground. By an effect of ballistics, and being given the altitude and the speed of the planes, the bombs released on the top of the coast can perfectly well fallen in the aerodrome, distant of approximately 3km from the coast.The ballistic was calculated by a "Norden", recent aiming instrument at the time. The weather made it possible to see Parme well before the arrival of the planes on Biarritz. For the same balistic reason the bombs fallen on the City, were obligatorily released well over the sea.
• The 466th BG dropped a total of 23,50 tons of bombs to which it is necessary to add 100x100 Lbs fragmentation, clusters dropped by 458th.BG. One of the planes of this last Group calles "B.O" could not release his bombs because of a defective selector switch. Its loading was made up of 40 "clusters". 20 were released later at sea, the 20 others were brought back to the base.
The loading of "OH MONA" was of 52 cluster bombs of 100 pounds. One can thus estimate that a total of about 45 tons of bombs were released on Biarritz in 7 to 8 minutes time!
• The weather and the visibility were perfect.
• Biarritz seems to have been the longest raid of all the War in Europe.
TWO POINTS STILL SEEM TO REMAIN OBSCURE:
1 - Altitude
2 - Which of the two Bombardment Groups was the first on the target.
• ALTITUDE
- According to Wade Hull, it was about 18,000 feet .(abt. 5.500 m.)
- According to David Manker, about 20,000 feet. (6.100 m.)
- Locally the figures given were 1500 to 3500 meters.(4900 to 11,500 feet).
The same day :
BG 379th bombarded Chartres at 17,500 feet .(abt. 5.300 m.)
BG 381st bombarded St Jean d' Angely at 22,500 feet. (abt. 6800 m.)
BG 100th bombarded Bordeaux at 23,000 feet (abt 7.000 m.)
BG 392th bombarded Mont-de-Marsan at 10,000 feet. (abt. 3.000 m.)
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