killed in the two bombings. A shower of bombs "I remember, we were at the table eating chips in spite of it being 1:45 according to the German clock. This had become the official time, but, for us it was only a quarter to one, as we were still keeping the old time. A powerful roar of aircraft engines made us rush out into the courtyard, eyes straining into the clear sky of early summer. A wave of about a dozen planes came across from the west. Some objects were falling from the planes. « They’re dropping leaflets » said my grandmother. « No, they’re bombs » exclaimed my father. We rushed back to the house and into a small passage of two square metres, chosen a long time ago as a shelter because it had very thick walls. We didn’t have a cellar." "When it stopped, the respite was only for a short time. A second wave came across. We held our breath, but it passed on towards Argentan. A third bombardment followed, just as intense, the terrible noise blotting out the sound of the women praying. We were waiting for a fourth wave, which never arrived. When we emerged from our shelter, our breath still shaking, a cloud of dust smothered the courtyard and all the neighbouring streets."…. "We were unscathed, the house hardly touched, but we were hemmed in by the rubble from the buildings on the main road. Just 50 metres away, some German ammunition lorries, concealed under the shade of the horse chestnuts in the fairground, had also been hit, and were blowing up one after the other. The trees were shredded, with reddened trunks encrusted with bits of metal. They had lost all their leaves and were framing the mangled chassis, carcasses of the German lorries." See article Strategic bombing during World War II Battle of Écouché On 12 August 1944, the 2nd Free French Armored Division of General Leclerc left Alençon. Its objective was to cut off the Granville-Paris trunk road from the German units which were retreating towards the Seine after their setback at failed counter-attack at Mortain. In the north, as the Canadians were holding Falaise; the German units under artillery and aircraft fire were forced to use the minor roads linking Putanges-Trun-Vimoutiers. This hindered their progress and made it possible to surround them, a situation which became known as the