*The initial publication of this book in 1989 inspired a Frenchman, Serge Lebourg, to devote countless hours to the task of researching the ill-fated Eighth Air Force bombings of Nantes on September 16^th (and September 23^rd, see Chapter 11) 1943. Lebourg’s family came from Nantes, and his parents survived the September 16^th bombing “by a miracle.” Thanks to Lebourg’s efforts, many of the questions which this writer originally thought were unanswerable have now been resolved.

In brief, over 1100 Frenchmen were killed as a result of the Eighth Air Force bombings on September 16^th. An additional 800 Frenchmen were seriously wounded and 1200 slightly wounded that day, whereas only 38 Germans were killed. 400 dwellings were totally destroyed, 600 were partially destroyed, and another 1200 were damaged.

According to Lebourg, there were three main reasons for the very high civilian casualty rates. First unlike many of the U-boat “sub-pen” cities on the Bay of Biscay coast such as Brest and St Nazaire, Nantes had never been bombed before. Its population had become complacent and tended to ignore air raid warnings. Second, unlike the sub-pen cities, the harbor at Nantes was not separated from the downtown area but instead ran along the banks of the River Loire right through the center of the City. Third, the bombing took place on a Thursday, which was a vacation day for French schoolchildren, and at the worst possible time, around 4 p.m. locally, a peak period for downtown activities.

Lebourg’s research reveals that the 303^rd’s main formation concentration of bombs fell in a northern suburb of the City, short of the target area by a mile. Most of the bombs fell in a residential area composed largely of small houses with gardens. Fortunately, this was not a high density population area, and part of the population was at work. Some of the Group’s bombs did fall in a public park (“le Parc de Procé”) where a park guard was fatally wounded. Three children were also wounded, but they survived. Other Group bombs fell in a nearby sports stadium (the Malville Stadium), where a number of players were killed. All total, Lebourg estimates that less than 100 Frenchmen were killed by the main 303^rd bomb pattern. Lebourg’s research also established that the Group bombardier, who shall remain nameless, was on his first mission after having spent many months recuperating from the effects of a severe attack of appendicitis. This may in part explain his poor performance on this mission.

Other casualties were caused by the separate bomb salvo of Lt. Campbell’s crew, and/or by the bomb load of Lt. McClellan’s crew, which “salvoed six and toggled six.” The bombs from one of these aircraft (probably Campbell’s) landed in the downtown area on “La rue Franklin” where they struck the “Olympia” movie theater which was showing the film “Michael Strogoff.” The movie was halted due to the air raid alert, but only a few theater patrons had gone to the air raid shelter, and a number of those who remained were killed when the bombs hit.

It appears that the best bombing of the day was that of the 379^th Group, and that one of its bombs was the one which damaged the floating drydock near the Kertosono. The worst bombing of the day, in terms of civilian casualties, was that of the 351^st Group. All this Group’s bombs fell in the center of the City, and some struck the main City hospital (the “Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu”). Lebourg estimates that approximately 1000 Frenchmen were killed in the 351^st Group’s strike area.