daftandbarmy said:
Most civilian casualties resulted from Allied bombing, especially in and around Caen.
My uncle flew on the Caen raid with RCAF Bomber Command. From what I understand, the first plan was to bomb the fortified village strongpoints north of Caen. But, because of the proximity of friendly troops, and the possibility of bombing error, the bombing area was moved back closer to Caen. The weather was clear for the raid, which took place in the evening. The two Aiming Points were well marked. It was considered to be a very accurate raid. Dust and smoke obscured the markers, but bombing remained concentrated. 2,276 tons of bombs were dropped.
As we now know, it was afterwards judged that the bombing should have been aimed at the original targets.
To keep French civilian casualties to a minimum, coded messages in radio programs were broadcast.
An example was, "Nous allons rendre visite a
Maginot ce soir." It was broadcast by the BBC during the afternoon of 18 July, 1944.
( Andre Maginot, the French Minister of War who gave his name to the famous "Line", had been born in Revigny. )
It was a warning, given as one of the conditions for the continued bombing of French railway centres.
That night, 24 of the Lancasters sent to Revigny were shot down. 22 per cent of the force.
The question is, if French officials knew that an attack was heading for Revigny that night, did the Luftwaffe also know?
St. Dizier airfield, barely 15 miles from the target, was home to an experienced Luftwaffe night-fighter unit.
Bomber Command had previously attacked Revigny on the nights of 12/13 and 14/15 July, 1944. Both raids had been failures with 17 Lancasters shot down.
Of the 290 aircrew in the 41 Lancaster that were shot down, only 59 men survived.
Six French civilians died in the bombing, ( a 39 year-old woman, two railway workers, a woman and her son, age 7, and an old woman ). Three others were slightly injured.