Hi, everyone, I am new to this site, but have been a regular poster on your companion site, ARRSE, for a number of years (by reason of being an ex-pongo). The reason for posting is that I am after any information on a particular raid carried out by the RAF in January 1945 and I thought that (like on the ARRSE site), that there are people more versed in the history of RAF Bomber Command than I.
Madame mnairb (my wife) is French, and a number of years ago, we bought a small house on the West Coast of France. Whereas the area is very old (the last bastion of the French Protestants), the local town, Royan, is newly built. Digging into the local history, I found that this area of France was one of the last to be liberated, but that an attempt to take the area was made in January 1945. Royan commands the estuary of the River Gironde, which leads to the inland port of Bordeaux, so while it was in German hands, Bordeaux could not be used to supply US troops fighting up from the South of France.
A number of fruitless attacks were made and in early January, apparently as a result of a drunken conversation between an American and a French officer, a request was made through SHAEF for Royan to be bombed. Subsequently, on the night of 4th/5th January, a large force of bombers was sent, in two waves, to obliterate the town, which they did. Unfortunately, the Germans had moved to the perimeter of the pocket and only about 50 were killed, as opposed to over 700 French civilians.
I have found out as much as I can from the internet about the raid, and what I have found contradicts what local French authors have written - particularly with regard to RAF losses that night. I know that there was at least one mid-air collision between 2 Lancasters (the crew of one of them is buried in the local cemetery) and others were lost either over Royan or over the river or on the return journey (the CWGC website has aircrew lost on that night listed in the cemetery at Cognac), but I have no details on them.
What I would like to know is more detail on the raid - squadrons involved, losses (where the planes came down, survivors etc.) and the presumed results of the raid. I always try to visit the local cemetery (Courlay) on our trips down to pay my respects and I have also found recently the graves of 3 of one crew in Royan cemetery, although this is a very sore point locally as the French civilians killed that night are buried in a mass grave in the same cemetery.
Any information would be very gratefully received as we are going back down in a couple of weeks.
Madame mnairb (my wife) is French, and a number of years ago, we bought a small house on the West Coast of France. Whereas the area is very old (the last bastion of the French Protestants), the local town, Royan, is newly built. Digging into the local history, I found that this area of France was one of the last to be liberated, but that an attempt to take the area was made in January 1945. Royan commands the estuary of the River Gironde, which leads to the inland port of Bordeaux, so while it was in German hands, Bordeaux could not be used to supply US troops fighting up from the South of France.
A number of fruitless attacks were made and in early January, apparently as a result of a drunken conversation between an American and a French officer, a request was made through SHAEF for Royan to be bombed. Subsequently, on the night of 4th/5th January, a large force of bombers was sent, in two waves, to obliterate the town, which they did. Unfortunately, the Germans had moved to the perimeter of the pocket and only about 50 were killed, as opposed to over 700 French civilians.
I have found out as much as I can from the internet about the raid, and what I have found contradicts what local French authors have written - particularly with regard to RAF losses that night. I know that there was at least one mid-air collision between 2 Lancasters (the crew of one of them is buried in the local cemetery) and others were lost either over Royan or over the river or on the return journey (the CWGC website has aircrew lost on that night listed in the cemetery at Cognac), but I have no details on them.
What I would like to know is more detail on the raid - squadrons involved, losses (where the planes came down, survivors etc.) and the presumed results of the raid. I always try to visit the local cemetery (Courlay) on our trips down to pay my respects and I have also found recently the graves of 3 of one crew in Royan cemetery, although this is a very sore point locally as the French civilians killed that night are buried in a mass grave in the same cemetery.
Any information would be very gratefully received as we are going back down in a couple of weeks.
