And you thought the bomb****ing in AH was bad...

[jeffdn]

Shortly before dawn on 18 July, the Highland infantry in the Orne bridgehead's southern sector quietly pulled back just over half a mile (about 1 km) from the front line. At 05:45, 1,056 Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster heavy bombers flying at 3,000 feet (910 m) dropped 4,800 tons of high explosive bombs around Colombelles and the steelworks, on the positions of the 21st Panzer Division, and on the town of Cagny reducing half of it to rubble. At 06:40 the British artillery opened fire and 20 minutes later the second wave of bombers arrived. From 10,000 feet (3,000 m)–13,000 feet (4,000 m), American B-26 Marauders released 563 tons of fragmentation bombs on the 16th Luftwaffe Division. Simultaneously, fighter-bombers attacked German strong points and gun positions. During the 45-minute bombardment the troops and tanks of the 11th Armoured Division moved out of their concentration areas towards the start line. H Hour was set for 07:45, so on schedule the artillery switched to a rolling barrage that would creep ahead of 11th Armoured's advance. As the division moved off, additional artillery regiments opened fire on Cuverville, Demouville, Giberville, Liberville, Cagny and Émiéville, and dropped harassing fire on targets as far south as Garcelles-Secqueville and Secqueville la Campagne. Fifteen minutes later the final bombing raid arrived; American heavy bombers dropped 1,340 tons of fragmentation bombs in the Troarn area and on the main German gun line on the Bourguébus Ridge. Only 25 bombers in the three waves were lost, all to German anti aircraft fire. Aerial support for the operation was then handed over to the 800 Royal Air Force fighter-bombers of No. 83 and No. 84 Groups.

I count 6,700 tons, or 13,400,000 lbs of bombs. Take that, perk tanks!

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Goodwood#Main_attack

[bozon]

What's worse is that the allied pilots immediately bailed out and rolled another bomber formation.

[SmokinLoon]

What's worse is that the allied pilots immediately bailed out and rolled another bomber formation.

doh!

I hope that burns everyone of those bomb-n-bail types.  I hope they get tears and beg for forgiveness!   

[Acidrain]

and to add insult to injury all the allied bombers were over 3k feet so they were Alt Monkeys on top of being bomb****s by AH bomb**** standards.

[Rich46yo]

Operation Cobra eh? As big a can of whoop arse that was ever unleashed in the war.

[Paladin3]

And horrifically many times they missed the units they were attempting to hit by twenty miles, sometimes to the tune of bombing friendly units. Yikes!

[Ardy123]

What's worse is that the allied pilots immediately bailed out and rolled another bomber formation.

[No9Squadron]

They dropped leaflets on Caen hospital, just minutes before the bomb drop, but doctors placed an X in the courtyard and miraculously it survived as 30, 000 French people died from Allied bombs and turned Caen into a Monte Cassino-style sniper's dream.

Goodwood and Cobra are probably quite important in history, the allies had been developing ground/air operations since Italy, but St Lo/Falaise battles were probably the turning point in war. It was as simple as the weather. If the weather was bad, the German tanks were winning the war, if the weather was good, the German tanks were being blown sky-high by Typhoons and P-47s.

non-tactical bombing was atrocious throughout WW2, even at the end it took 30 lancs to hit a bridge or a ship and in 1941 only something like 5% of bombs were being dropped within 5 miles of the target.

Alot of famous operations killed more allies than Germans, e.g. Dambusters, Peenemunde, Caen etc. One notable exception being the raid on Amiens Prison, Operation Jericho which saved more prisoners than killed prisoners. The raid on the Gestapo HQ in Denmark didn't go so well though, they hit a school and killed scores of kids. Very hit and miss stuff, bombing, a lot of collateral damage.