Coutances June 1944

[richard.k]

Hopefully this works. I have included a bomb camers photo from the attack on Coutances in June 1944. In it ,there is a circle of smoke. Looking for some feed back on what in may be. I thought it may be an aircraft turning out after being hit by bombs. There were a couple of losses, but not sure why and where they came down.
Thanks in advance. Richard

[Adriano Baumgartner]

It is known that 88 Squadron and other RAF Boston Squadrons were used to lay smoke´s screens on D-Day; however this image seems to be a full vertical loop...the other 2 ( do not know if it is a mirror image ) horizontal smoke strecthes are interesting too...
Really amazing....there is a big flash on the top - what is that? A Flare?
Do you have a time for that action?
Yours
Adriano

[Adriano Baumgartner]

From the picture, we can see it was taken on the night of 6/7 June 1944. Could it be a Luftwaffe attack with Hs-293 bombs by night? It is also known that several Ju 88 attempted to bomb the Fleet by night...have to check that possibility too...
Yours
Adriano

[richard.k]

The photo was automatically taken from a 420 squadron Halifax while over Coutances after it released the bomb load. In the centre of the photo a load of 500 lb bombs can be seen going down. The bright light is either a flare or TI.
Richard

[Bill Walker]

Amazing photo. Knowing those are bombs in the middle, not airplanes, lends some scale. Possibly this is a smoke ring from the ignition of a flare or TI. It does not appear to be connected to any of the horizontal traces, which could be tracer shots. The bump in the middle of the horizontal traces could result from aircraft movement during the duration of the exposure.