"Emmanuel Gustin" wrote in message
...
"Dave Eadsforth" wrote in message
...

Do you happen to know what the real kill rate was at Falaise? The
Typhoons were supposed to have just about wiped out every bit of useful
armour

The battlefield examination team found 33 armoured vehicles
that had been the victim of air attack. The original RAF and
USAF claim was for 391 -- about three times as much as the
total number of wrecked tanks and other vehicles on the
battlefield, and probably also about three times the number
the German had, as they lost almost everything.

You have to keep in mind that the number of German tanks
at Falaise was rather low. No more than about 30 tanks and
armoured vehicles per worn-out 'Panzerdivision' seems to
have been the norm.

- was that the only big, verifiable success for rockets?

Depends on what you call a success. No large numbers of
tanks were destroyed, but the German stopped their movement
and hid under cover when the sky cleared. Their mobility was
restricted to times when there was a fog or in the dark of the night.
(No moonlight!) As a force they were extremely vulnerable
to air attack. Much of their mobility depended on horses, not
armour.


And even more depended on horses, my father reported that
it was the number of dead horses at Falaise that shocked him
most when they finally secured the pocket.

Keith