Yes, Nijmegen got hit almost as bad as Rotterdam (the worst bombing by the germans) and that was also because of allied forces thinking they were flying over germany. It was the 80 year memorial a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, more than a few people died in Nijmegen.

Especially with night bombing campaigns.

They used to "move" towns by a few km by stringing up lights that matched the pattern of the town's streetlamps in empty fields a few km away, and then having the actual city blacked out. From 30k feet up, they'd see matching light patterns and assume they were over the target.

The daylight bombing raids were a bit more accurate. You may think that being able to match a map to terrain features sounds relatively easy in a plane that's flying relatively slowly along a predictable route. But if it's at all overcast it's much harder. Then add in flak or enemy fighters distracting you and pulling you away from your maps, and suddenly it's a lot harder.

But, under ideal conditions, with the Norden bomb sight, the bombers could be surprisingly accurate. The bomb sight adjusted for ground speed, changing winds, and included a primitive auto-pilot and actually steered the plane, and AFAIK it auto-released the bombs at the right time. Hitting the right cluster of buildings from a height of 30k feet with a gravity bomb is fairly impressive. But, under combat conditions that was pretty rare.

Why didn't they just use the GPS?

I've done some night flying by dead reckoning. I had the benefit of meteorologists in the territory I was flying over, so I had pretty good winds aloft data. That makes a DIFFERENCE.

Or landed in. See giant stone marking spelling out EIRE, i.e., NOT ENGLAND YOU STUPID YANKEE.

Russia is just honoring the Great Patriotic War!

I was going to make a joke about how it was really because they were hiding Nazi gold but...

Although these bombings were attributed to error, some historians have suspected that the Allies wanted to send a warning to Switzerland for having collaborated with Germany.

An easy mistake at any altitude.

The German city of Constanze would deliberately leave all their lights on at night so that allied pilots would think they were part of Switzerland

This actually worked pretty well

If you’re abandoning a tank, there’s a good chance you’re worried about being sniped.

learn that at ft benning huh? home of the armor school?

No you didn't. because that's.... something you just assumed in your head.

these chucklefucks getting blasted in Ukraine have a lot more to worry from mine and rpg toting quad copters than their TC getting sniped in the turret.

sniping tank commanders would actually be living on hard mode because if the russians have ANYTHING with IR, it'll be their more advanced BMPs and t72s/t90s. so you take your pot shot, then they slew around, find your hot spot, and start putting autocannon rounds around you. not a smart tactic.

you don't waste snipers attacking tanks. why do I even bother replying....