Events at Villers Bocage

Events at Villers Bocage

Details of the events leading to the loss of Bob Cooke and crew, 30 June 1944.

One printed sheet

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Details obtained from public records and eye witnesses

[underlined] Excerpt from A.S.O. Summary 1 July 1944 obtained from the Air Historical Branch: [/underlined]

"F/Sgt Cooke was the pilot of Halifax LV782 which was operating with 51 Sqn. The aircraft took off from RAF Snaith and was one of 266 bombers detailed to operations against Villers Bocage. The plan was to bomb a road junction through which the tanks of two German Panzer divisions would have to pass in order to carry out an attack on the British and American armies in Normandy that night. 1.100 tons of bombs were dropped with great accuracy and the planned German attack was disrupted.

Villers Bocage. Concentration of Troops and Armour in the area of road junctions at the W. end of the village.

258 aircraft comprising 148 Lancasters, 104 Halifaxes and 6 Mosquitos attacked between 1955 and 2010 hours, dropping approximately 1.092 tons of HE and 5 tons of marker bombs.

At the target there was 5/10ths to 6/10ths scattered strato-cumulus, base about 5,000 ft. and tops 7,500 ft., and good visibility. The first marker bombs fell slightly short of the aiming point and the Master Bomber ordered the crews to overshoot. The whole target soon became obliterated by smoke, and instructions were then given to bomb slightly to west of the centre of the smoke and later to bomb a further cluster of markers which the Master Bomber considered to have fallen exactly on the aiming point. Reports state that the aiming point was covered with an intense concentration of bombing and crews consider the attack to have been very successful.

There was no fighter opposition, but fairly accurate heavy and light flak was encountered in the target area.

One Lancaster and one Halifax are missing. Two Lancasters collided near TANGMERE on the way out. Five members of one crew were killed, while the crew of the other aircraft baled out with the exception of the pilot who landed the aircraft safely."

[underlined] Recollection of The Late R.J. (Jim) Feaver D.F.C., pilot of S-Sugar, another aircraft of "C" flight, 51. Sqn. [/underlined]

('C' Flight of 51 Squadron was at the end of the bomber stream and the last to arrive over the target.)

"Sqn. Ldr. N. Simmonds, Acting Squadron Commander, was the Bomb Aimer of Fl/Lt. Feaver's aircraft. Due to an increase in tail wind 98% of the aircraft were approximately 3 minutes ahead of the estimated time of arrival over the target. The remaining 2%, 5 aircraft were at 12,000 ft. on track and on time. As the 5 aircraft approached the enemy coast the cloud was almost 10/10ths (nearly complete cloud cover). There the Master Bomber gave the order "basement 4,5" which meant descend to that height to bomb. It was too late for the main force descend as they were already over the target area and could see breaks in the cloud. The 5 aircraft, which included T-Tommy, made a steep descent to 4,000 ft. The result of this was that they caught up with the main force and flew through the bombs, which they dropped. Nick Simmonds saw the Master Bomber aircraft explode to total destruction and shortly after that, T-Tommy went down."

Another member of Jim Fleaver's crew, Eric Millett told me that he also had a vivid recollection of that operation and just after he saw the Lancaster blow up, he saw the starboard wing of MH-T Tommy "fold up" from the wing-root. He remembered also hearing a bomb scrape the side of the fuselage of S-Sugar, suggesting that it is possible that a bomb hit T-“Tommy" from above and that a similar fate had almost befallen him and his crew. He remembered the operation so clearly because about a minute later anti-aircraft fire blew away the front 6 ft. of the nose of his aircraft. Whatever the cause of the loss of MH-T, we can be certain that two of the five bombers that decended [sic] to 4,000 ft. as ordered were lost and a third was hit but fortunately remained airworthy.

At such a height there was no possibility of the crew escaping. By this time they must have dropped their bombs and the aircraft fell in a field on a farm between Caumont L'Evente and Cahagne, approximately 8 miles west of Villers Bocage. The whole crew was posted as missing and it was not until 13th September that news from the RAF Liaison Officer HQ Second Army confirmed that their temporary graves had been found at map reference: 740580 or 739580.

The bombing operation was successful and the target, the II Panzer Corps, was severely weakened. Their subsequent attack on 1st July was repulsed by Artillery and Naval gunfire and a serious threat to the Allied build up had been overcome.