Mont Fleury Coastal Battery, Normandy

[Stein Meum]

Namrondooh, you must clear your mailbox again. Unable to send info on the photos you sent me!

Stein

[JFLC-GoldBeach]

There were 124 aircraft dispatched to Mont Fleury, 114 Halifax IIIs from 4 Group and 5 Lancaster IIIs from 582 Squadron did the PFF backing up using green target indicators. 3 Mosquito XVIs of 109 Squadron and 2 Mosquito IXs of 105 Squadron did the PFF Oboe marking from 18,0000' & 30,000' with red target indicators. All 10 Pathfinder aircraft attacked successfully with 10/10 cloud at 9/10,000 feet. 103 of the 114 Halifaxes attacked the primary with 2 lost. The Lancasters marked at 04:33 to 04:37 from 7,000 to 8,500 due to the thick cloud that was causing icing. I presume the Halifaxes also had to descend to get under the cloud. 540 tons of bombs were dropped.
Regards
Dave Wallace

Hello,
I arrive a little bit late on this post but as a new member of the forum I hope maybe receving an answer !
Two questions : Did the Lancasters from the 582 Sqn which made the PFF were equiped with the Oboe system like the Mosquitos ?
How worked the target indicators ? Did they were incendiary bombs made with mixure of chemical colored items and phosphorus ?
Thanks for help.
J-F
Curator of the Gold-Beach Museum-Ver-sur-Mer-France.

[JFLC-GoldBeach]

Hello,

This post looks sleeping as I've not received any answer to my question... Maybe will you be interested in the testimony from the schoolmaster who was also town hall secretary clerk in Ver-sur-Mer in 1944? He was in his makeshift shelter at Ver when the 500 tons of bombs fell on the Mont-Fleury Battery... I've translated the French text in English. The schoolmaster tells it was 3:30AM, in France in June 1944 time was GMT+1 and in UK GMT+2 (Double British Summer Time). J-F

Alas, I say pensive, what bombardment! If it came so much on Ver, poor us! It came so much and even more! They arrived at Ver at 3h30, a wave of planes descended on the village turned at low altitude in a gloomy roar and then moved away. An imperfect silence disturbed by distant rumblings gradually recovers. A few minutes passed, then new waves of planes appeared. First terrible explosions… The sky lights up. The windows shatter, the ceilings dimmed by previous bombings fall. This time it’s a night bombardment. Soon the 150 inhabitants left in Ver that did not want to leave, rush into makeshift shelters. The crash of explosions mingles with the roaring planes and the shooting of the enemy batteries that finally break the silence. Everything vibrates. The explosions succeed each other, tearing the air, shaking the earth with an inextinguishable thrill. In the light of the fires that ignite here and there, the illuminating candles light up the sky, the houses crash. The air smells like smoke, dust gun powder. Death hovers, reign… The minutes go by as long hours. The night ends in the infernal noise and the urchin flames and fire does not subside. The dawn finally was born timidly in a dirty grey sky… An acrid smell and taste in the throat. Is this going to go on much longer? What the hell is going on? Around 4:45, calm. The planes are leaving after throwing some 600 tons of bombs. At last it’s the end, we come out of our hole. A spectacle of desolation is offered to us: torn houses, bomb craters, smoking ruins. I suppose it was an air bombardment because a line of trees hides the horizon from me. The inhabitants of the beach have understood because they see the silhouettes of the boats profiling themselves offshore.