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From D-Day to V-Day

October 1944

October 29, 1944 - D-Day + 145

In the course of the day, the First Canadian Army’s II Canadian Corps mopped up southern Beveland and occupied the area in the Breskens Pocket. The men from the British 52nd Infantry and the 2nd Canadian Infantry Divisions met up in southern Beveland. The 52nd Infantry also occupied Goes. After reaching the Bergen-op-Zoom – Tilburg highway, units from the British I Corps rotated northwards in the effort to secure crossings over the Mark River. The Polish 1st Armored Division, which had made a name for itself in its earlier battles, occupied Breda.

An enemy attack headed out of Meijel towards Liesel and Asten pushed Combat Command B of the US 7th Armored Division (assigned to the British VIII Corps) out of Liesel. Combat Command R was also forced to retreat under German pressure, involuntarily leaving Asten. Units from the British 15th Infantry Division, which had just completed its mission with the British XII Corps, as well as a British tank brigade were sent out that night to support the corps. The British 15th Infantry relieved the 7th Armored Division’s Combat Command B near Liesel and Combat Command R southeast of Asten. After being relieved, the 7th Armored Division gathered in Nederweert and Weert.

Three companies from the 357th Infantry Regiment of the XX Corps’ 9th Infantry Division launched an attack without artillery support out of the industrial area in Meziéres-lés-Metz in the section south of the Hotel deVille while another two companies launched an attack from the north. Most of the city was mopped up after sundown.

The 45th Infantry Division from the Seventh Army’s VI Corps crossed through Bru and Jeanménil, towns which the enemy successfully defended one month earlier, without encountering any resistance and continued to advance towards Raon-l’Etape. On the same day, the 3rd Infantry Division improved its position near St Dié. The 442nd Infantry Regiment, attached to the 36th Infantry Division, advanced to the isolated 1st Battalion from the 36th Infantry Division’s 141st Infantry Regiment in the Forét Domaniale de Champs.

On the day after the Czechoslovak national holiday, Czechoslovak-piloted fighter aircraft went back into action. Once more the mission was well known – a bomber escort. This time the carriers of a deadly payload led the Czechoslovaks over the Dutch island of Walcheren, which was attacked by 194 Lancasters, 128 Halifaxes and 36 Mosquitoes from the No. 1, 3, 4, and 8 Groups as part of Operation Ramrod 1351 in the effort to silence the costal artillery batteries once and for all. A total of 11 various German land positions were attacked. Visibility during the attack was good, and as Bomber Command reported, all the targets were hit. One British Lancaster was lost during the raid.

It was also busy at the No. 311 Squadron, which over the past several days had enjoyed the relative quiet of operational flights with all the crews fortunately returning safely. Gradually, four four-engine GRV model Liberators took to the skies. Their mission was to eliminate a German U 1060 submarine that had run aground near the island of Fleina after it had been damaged by British Firefly airplanes. About half an hour after takeoff, though, one of the Czechoslovak Liberators crashed into the Scottish coast in Sutherland County. Four of the nine men on board P/O Pospíchal’s Liberator with the call sign G survived the crash, although they were injured. The others died at the site of the crash. Two Czechoslovak aircraft finally destroyed Oberleutnant Herbert Brammer’s U-boat using unguided rocket fire and depth charges. This was a celebrated victory by the men from the No. 311 Squadron, though a bittersweet one due to the loss of five friends.

In Adinkerke, Belgium, funerals were held for the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade members who had died the previous day during the attack against the German positions. On October 29, Private Pavel Pijáček (b. 1921), a native of Prague and a member of the Brigade’s tank maintenance unit, died in the hospital. He was a victim of an automobile crash. He was buried at the Commonwealth soldiers’ cemetery in St. Omer, France.