An example of a bombing photo
bombing photo

A good example of a bombing photograph taken from the Lancaster of Squadron Leader F V P Van Rolleghem and crew of 103 squadron over Vire on the night of the 6/7th June 1944. Van Rolleghems target on this operation was the Eastern Aiming Point, which was the railway bridge over the River Vire. A bomb load of 18 x 500lb general purpose bombs was dropped from a height of 4000 ft at approximately 00:36. The aircraft was flying on a magnetic heading of 126 degrees. K 103 refers to the aircraft identification letter and squadron.

The pattern of the fields below and 2 roads can just be seen. The bombs are exploding at the bottom centre of the photograph and were later plotted several hundred yards short of the target having fallen in open fields. The 2 white blotches top right are flak bursts and the white streak lower down to the right is tracer from light flak.

The photograph was taken by photoflash 21 seconds after the bomb load was dropped.

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