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  • June 1944
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  • May 1945

From D-Day to V-Day

July 1944

July 2, 1944 - D-Day + 26

It’s July 2, 1944. The 21st Army Group has started to regroup its forces for the upcoming offensive that aims to break through the enemy’s defense line and return the Allied troops to return to the offensive.

With the 4th, 9th and 83rd Infantry Divisions under its command, the US First Army’s VII Corps will be deployed to the sector between the US VIII and XIX Corps in the upcoming operations. The 8th, 79th and 90th Infantry Divisions and the famous “All-American” 82nd Airborne Division are currently in the US VIII Corps. For the upcoming operations, the neighboring XIX Corps has two divisions – the 29th and 30th Infantry Divisions – while the US V Corps consists of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions and the 2nd Armored Division. As reserves of the First Army, the 3rd Armored Division and the 101st Airborne Division are prepared to get involved in the fighting.

While the Czechoslovaks operating on Spitfire fighter aircraft were getting ready to serve the Air Defence of Great Britain, their colleagues from the No. 311 Squadron continued to comb the endless expanse of the Atlantic Ocean with their Liberator aircraft in an effort to prevent German submarines from entering the English Channel and attacking the Allied convoys. Although navigating the Channel at that time was practically guaranteed to be a losing proposition for German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz’s U-boats, in the period from 2 July to 16 August 1944 about twenty submarines managed to make their way into Channel waters. The inclement weather in the first two days of July prevented the Czechoslovak airmen operating in Coastal Command to take off on their four-engine aircraft and “go submarine hunting”, but over the following days they were able to make up for lost time.