More earthworks at LM

[Gilles]

Concur with Fax that it is a US one - the Germans didn't bomb France much and it certainly isn't big enough for the standard RAF fare of 1,000 pounders.   It's where it is that makes one wonder how many of us have walked around there.....and how many others may still be buried.... 

MG Mark

You're right... a lot of them are still buried.

This part of the city is where most of bombings were made. If you can rmember the military camp just face to the aerodrome, this is where stood the Jeumont Schneider factory. This factory was used during the WW2 as a test and production facility for Junkers engines !!! SO it was a strategic place to bomb, a massive destruction weapon facility.

[Piglet]

Hi Fax, or maybe these guys from 6 Group RAF Bomber Command on the 23rd May 1944.

112 Halifaxes from 420, 424, 425, 426, 427, 429, 432, and 433 Squadrons were ordered on an attack of the rail yards at Le Mans. The crews were over the target at between 7,000 and 9,000 feet, releasing 826,000 lbs of high explosives. According to reports, bombing was accurate and severe damage was caused.

P/O W. Fernyhough from 432 Squadron returned without bombing as there were no T.I’s.
F/Sgt S. Kuleski RCAF and crew, flying Halifax III MZ-506 coded QO-X, failed to return from this operation.

Sgt E. Horton RAF
F/O W. Matthews RCAF
F/Sgt B. Richmond RCAF
W/O2 J. Desmarais RCAF
Sgt E. Boutilier RCAF
Sgt M. Wiwsianski RCAF
Sgt W. Crum RCAF
All were killed.

Phil are these the guy that the memorial is to or is it a generic Canadian memorial - we visited it last year - have pics somewhere but I can't remember the content of it?

[Fax]

I found this, the US Eighth Air Force hit the airfield with heavy bombers in conjuction with the Normandy landings.  I'm betting thats where our little buried buddy came from.
Fax
http://www.usaaf.net/ww/vol2/vol2pg18.htm

[Lorry]

Very interesting picture. 

I think the pit straight is the road cutting the top left hand corner.  You can't identify any pits or stands amongst the mirk, except for a large building near what is now the Ford chicane, which I think is a appears in the old films.

Yes there are hits around the tunnel, and for such a large target there appear to be a number of misses, although from the amount of smoke and dust over the runway the mission must have been accomplished.

[Ferrari Spider]

It would be interesting to know what the actual objective was for the bombing?  What types of aircraft were based at Le Mans during June '44 and also the railway is nearby, so what reserve forces were located here?  I do know that the French resistance were sabotaging railway wagons to prevent the armoured reserves reaching the landing area.

[Fax]

Certainly a top priority was keeping the Luftwaffe off the beaches so I suspect if it had so much as a WWI Fokker biplane located there, they were going to hammer it.  Unusual though to send heavy bombers at a airfield, usually more of a target for medium-light bombers and fighters on more hit & run type raids.  Must have been something there they REALLY wanted to get rid of.
Fax

[Lorry]

For a few months before D Day, about half the heavy bomber raids were to soften up the Normandy area, so all military targets, plus the usual railway yards, bridges etc would have got their share.

[Ferrari Spider]

Hmmh, I thought the main bomber effort was away from the Normandy area, thus ensuring the Germans believed the assault would be in the Par d Calais?

Might be worth a beer and a chat during a meetup somewhere?

[Ferrari Spider]

came across this about Le Mans airfield.  It seems the Germans had a large bomb dump there and us Brits gave it a pasting during the assault over the night of 9/10 June '44, so the bomb may be one of our's?

Le Mans airfield was an important Luftwaffe bomb dump stocked with quantities of 250 kg. bombs. Although neither I. nor II./JG 1 had received any training as fighter-bombers, both Gruppen were assigned the Jabo (Jagd-Bomber) role on June 8th. The pilots of the two air defense units were to read a text on Jabo tactics and were sent off on missions that same day. II. Gruppe started off on its first fighter-bomber mission at 1100 hours with twenty-five Focke-Wulfs against the Allied armada off the Normandy coast. They were not intercepted, and other than the many flak hits received from the defending ships, all aircraft returned safely. No hits were claimed. Bad weather on 9 June kept most German and Allied air units grounded, but II. Gruppe did manage one Jabo mission with twenty aircraft off the coast. Again, they weren't intercepted and suffered no losses. That night, at approximately 0100 hours, Le Mans airfield was attacked by RAF four-engined bombers. II. Gruppe lost seven aircraft and five more damaged, even though they were dispersed 500 meters east of the airfield. These losses plus numerous bomb craters kept it grounded for the next six days. On 12 June, Oblt. von Kirchmayr was released from the hospital in Störmede after a bout of infectious yellow jaundice and allowed to fly back to his unit, but was attacked by Spitfires over Flers. He shot down one of the Spitfires, but the victory was never confirmed due to the lack of a witness. On the 15th, the Gruppe lost two more Focke-Wulfs during a bombing attack on Le Mans.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2072/FGnorm.html

[Fax]

Interesting reading there Spider, looks like they were hitting it day & night.  Between the airfield, the Junkers facility Gilles mentioned and the rail yards the city of Le Mans was getting alot of attention from RAF Bomber Command and the USAF Eighth Air Force.  Be carefull driving those tent stakes into the ground guys.
Fax

[Lazy B'stard]

On the overflow field in between Blue Sud and the southern end of the airfield there is a big stagnant water filled hole up in the top corner, it has no water leading into it (360 days of the year anyway, it smells very nasty by Sunday night), it's about the same size and shape as the bomb craters that litter the moors above my native Sheffield. Could it be a remnant that wasn't filled in? its only about half a Km from the runway.

[Lorry]

............ Gruppe lost seven aircraft and five more damaged, even though they were dispersed 500 meters east of the airfield.

Good god - this means they were camping in the Houx, if my geography's correct.

[Lorry]

.........  Be carefull driving those tent stakes into the ground guys.

One of our team used to think that there was a submarine buried in MB, about where Team JPC were this year.  You'd knock a tent peg in for a couple of inches, and then it would just stop dead.  Now we know what it was.

[Canada Phil]

Phil are these the guy that the memorial is to or is it a generic Canadian memorial - we visited it last year - have pics somewhere but I can't remember the content of it?

Hi Piglet,
              The memorial near Arnage corner is indeed to this flight crew. It marks the crash site. Shot down by the Anti Aircraft battery located at Tetre Rouge. All the airmen are buried at the Le Mans west Cemetery.
All squadrons mentioned in the report are RCAF
Canada Phil

[Gilles]

Not forgetting the pit lane was destroyed to not be used as a provisory airfield...