The Moment that Besmirched one of the Greatest U.S. WWII Victories: Accidentally Bombing Allied Troops
It is a delicate balancing act to have air support close enough to be helpful in a battle and not turn those warplanes towards our own troops.
Patton’s Army continued its historic advance, liberating more than half of France, including the city of Paris on Aug. 25. After troubled campaigns in North Africa and Italy, the U.S. Army’s moment of glory had finally come.
Bradley’s attack succeeded because of its application of combined arms warfare using the strengths of infantry, armor, artillery and air power. While the aerial bombardment played an important role in opening the breach, the friendly casualties were a result of disregarding the inability of the strategic bombers of the time to act as precision weapons.
Allied bombing in Normandy in June and July is also estimated to have killed 50,000 French civilians and destroyed roughly 75 percent of the buildings in its major cities. Americans, Germans and the French all paid aid a terrible cost in the campaign that finally broke the Nazi occupation of Northern France.
This first appeared in WarIsBoring here. This first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest. Image: Reuters.