The aerial bombardments on Vierville and Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944
The assault troops were disappointed when they discovered that the beaches had not been affected by the aerial bombardments, and quickly realized that the bombings had had no effect on the beach defences.
And in fact, the clouds had forced the "Liberators" quadrimotors of the 8°US Stategic Air Force to use their sighting systems without visibility. With this technique, the dispersion due to high-altitude bombardments, already important in clear weather, was increased to the point of endangering the assault vessels in approach.
In that event, it was planned to delay the time to release the bombs so that they would fall more inland on average, thus ensuring the safety of the boats.
Variable in time from H time, this delay ranged from 5 to 30 seconds (an inward shift of 500m to 3000m). The decision to use this procedure was made in the night before D-Day and approved by Supreme Headquarters. This meant that the centre of gravity of bomb strikes would not be on the coast but largely within the land and that the main effect would be only to reach enemy communications and assembly areas in the back.
.
Of the 446 (114 for Vierville and Percaea) four-engined "Liberators" sent to Omaha Beach, 329 actually dropped their bombs. The attack took place between 0555 and 0614 hours, the bombs dispersed in the countryside. (see the report on the basis of departure.
Even with good visibility, high-altitude bombardments were poorly suited to this mission on small targets (several separate areas of 100m by 200m), given the normal dispersion of bomb impacts over hundreds of metres and even kilometres. The attacks of German cities had demonstrated this amply in the past. On the other hand, the German fortified points of the beach Utah Beach attacked by medium-sized bombers B26 "Marauder" at medium altitude and under the clouds suffered a lot.
