Just thought it worth reflecting that 60 years ago yesterday, the Battle of the Falaise Gap officially ended.

People of our generation can fortunately only try to imagine the awful scenes after the battle.

Official RAF artist Frank Wootton took his easel down to St. Pierre-sur-Dives.

'The bodies of German soldiers were everywhere, some still in their vehicles, sprwaled over the seats, others on the running boards staring up at the sky - they mingled with the horses, dead in the shafts of broken carts. Orchards were choked with the burned-out vehicles and the bodies of those who had sought the cover of the trees, their faces blackened with flies while, over everything, hung the sweet sickly smell of death.

I had to omit a great deal of the unpaintable'. ( from 'Frank Wootton : 50 Years Of Aviation Art' London, 1992 ).

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson