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Old 19th March 2019, 16:24
Laurent Rizzotti Laurent Rizzotti is offline
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Re: How many tonnes of bombs did the Allies drop on D-Day?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan History View Post
"During the 24 hours of 6 June, the Strategic Air Forces flew 5,309 sorties to drop 10,395 tons of bombs, while aircraft of the tactical forces flew a further 5,276 sorties"

These are US, or short, tons, so the equivalent weight in metric tonnes is 9,430.
I'm quite sure the above is for both British and US Strategic Air Forces (Bomber Command and 8th Air Force)

Regarding the number of sorties:
1,136 by Bomber Command
1,880 by 8th AF fighters (including fighter-bomber sorties)
2,591 by 8th AF bombers, only 1729 bombing a target

Total: from 5607 to 4845 sorties, I think a number of bombers that did not bomb were counted as sorties while other were not. Probably the ones that flew over France without finding a target were counted.

Regarding the bombs:
5,853 tons by Bomber Command
3,596 tons by 8th AF bombers (according to http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii...ml/Jun.44.html)
Total: 9449, close to your number. It is possible that the 3,596 tons just above are short tons, roughly 3300 metric tons. This will leave about 250 tons not listed, but the 8th AF fighters probably dropped them.
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