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  • June 1944
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  • December 1944
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  • February 1945
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  • May 1945

From D-Day to V-Day

July 1944

July 1, 1944 - D-Day + 25

Month Two of the Invasion

July 1944 has begun. For not quite four weeks now, the Allied forces have been attacking the occupying forces in France. They broke through the legendary Atlantic Wall and plowed through parts of Normandy. The Wehrmacht and SS forces’ determined resistance did slow the Allied advance. The US troops gradually advanced through the Cotentin Peninsula and only hours ago were they able to take over Cherbourg harbor – a strategically critical target. The British troops were halted near Caen, and Operation Epsom failed to result in the city being surrounded.

The command of the US First Army issued Field Order No. 1 to launch the main offensive on the front on July 3, 1944. According to the order, the US VIII Corps on the Army’s western flank would advance eastwards in conjunction with other corps. In the US VII Corps zone centered in the Cotentin Peninsula area, the enemy’s organized resistance slowly started to wane. On the same day, the 9th Infantry Division advanced to Cap de la Hague. In the zone of the US V Corps – the same corps which would make it all the way to Bohemia ten months later – the 2nd Infantry Division’s 38th Infantry Regiment under the command of Col Zwicker carried out a limited attack to reinforce their positions.

In the British sector, the British Second Army held back a German counterattack between Tilly sur Seulles and Caen. Reinforced by concentrated artillery shelling, units from the British XXX Corps and VIII Corps deflected the enemy, who lost a number of tanks in the battle.

The Czechoslovak No. 134 Wing RAF was recalled from the Second Tactical Air Force and assigned to the Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB) command. Following the hectic days of June filled with tension, stress, fatigue and especially the determination to fight, the RAF command decided that the Czechoslovaks would be called on to serve in the ADGB so as to protect their “big brothers”, the Bomber Command units, in the course of their dangerous missions over targets throughout western Europe. Burnout among troops, the threat of further losses and the absence of reserves were the main reasons why the Czechoslovak fighter pilots were called back to Fighter Command – but Operation Ramrod was far from a vacation for the Czechoslovaks.