dhfan wrote:
The bombing wasn't entirely unsuccessful, see the last picture on Tillerman's second link, but wasn't as effective as hoped.
Yes, you are right of course. If I recall correctly (and I may not!!), they used napalm, and it set light to some of the lighter fractions on the surface, but the heavy stuff was unaffected and just rolled onto the beaches. I saw some of those beaches and cliffs - the oil hung around for years, no-one really knew how to deal with it.
What I also seem to remember was a stink from some of our then (Labour) Government's supporter's over the use of napalm....they were in disarmament mode then and IIRC, didn't know that our Forces still had loads of napalm. But someone may want to put me right on that.