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From D-Day to V-Day

August 1944

August 3, 1944 - D-Day + 58

In the course of August 3, 1944, the British VIII Corps from the British Second Army advanced very slowly in the Vire and Estry area, but units from the British XXX Corps were able to eliminate the fierce German defenses as they advanced to Mont Pincon, Aunay and Villers-Bocage with relative success. Their colleagues from the British XII Corps, with the 50th British Infantry Division on the right and the 53rd British Infantry Division on the left, occupied positions along the main road between Villers-Bocage and Caen. In the course of the day, the 53rd British Infantry Division conquered Noyers and Missy.

Things were also relatively active in the American sector. The command of the 12th Army Group ordered the Third Army to occupy the Breton Peninsula using as few forces as possible, clear the area west of the Mayenne River and north of the Loire River of the enemy, and cross the Maynne River. At the same time, the US First Army was ordered to expand its attack operations in the Maynne – Domfort region.

In the course of the day, vanguard units from the US VIII Corps’ 6th Armored Division fought their way through to the vicinity of Loudeac and were halted only by an order to return and eliminate the defenses around Dinan. In the course of August 3, 1944, the 6th Armored Division’s Task Force A advanced to the St Malo area where a handful of enemy attack formations were still located. The 8th Infantry Division’s 13th Infantry Regiment returned to its “parent” division after being lent out to the 4th Armored Division. Immediately after returning to the division, the regiment launched an attack on Rennes. One of the attack battalions literally shot a path through the strong enemy defenses to the northeast section of the city. The severe losses testify to the strength of the attack and the ferocity of the defenders. From the single battalion, sixty Americans were killed in action and another 130 were injured in the course of the day. This, too, was the face of the war to liberate France. At 0300 hours the following day, about 2,000 German defenders used unoccupied routes to start to withdraw from the nearly surrounded city. Whoever did not escape was killed in action or captured. The 4th Armored Division went around Rennes in two columns within a 15 and 30 mile radius of the city. In the course of the day, the division’s Combat Command B occupied Bain-de-Bretagne and Derval; the unit encountered practically no resistance during their advance. Tanks broke through road barricades and eliminated scattered enemy units. Combat Commands A and B both cut through seven of the ten main roads leading to Rennes during their advance, and then continued to advance to the south and west. The enemy was on the run in this sector, and it was necessary to take full advantage of this situation. In the US XV Corps area, the 79th Infantry Division conquered Fougéres.

US First Army’s US VII Corps occupied Mortain. The 4th Infantry Division continued to advance on St Pois while the 9th Infantry Division took up positions northwest of Forét de St Sever. In the course of the day, the US XIX Corps continued to head southwest, and its right flank reached as far as St Sever-Calvados. Attack formations maneuvering on the left flank were halfway to Vire. The men from the US V Corps who were headed for the same target encountered increasingly fierce enemy resistance as the day wore on.

Czechoslovak fighter aircraft once again got involved in fighting on the western front. The men from the No. 310 Squadron took off for the south of the Netherlands on a Ranger mission - a long-distance bombing raid carried out by low-flying fighter aircraft. Their target was rail, road and river transport, but the pilots also took aim at enemy airfields where a major threat lurked – 20 and 37 mm light flack. At the same time, the men from the No. 311 Squadron prepared to transfer to their new airbase in Scotland.

In the meantime, the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade continued with live fire exercises and general preparations to be redeployed to France. General Liška’s thousand men included several hundred “Rats of Tobruk”, as the former members of the 11th Infantry Battalion – East were nicknamed. This was a unit that started to be formed in the Middle East in the fall of 1940 as a Czechoslovak contingent. Effective November 1, 1940, the Czech Ministry of National Defence in London set up Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion No. 11 – East in Palestine as a combat unit in the Czechoslovak military contingent. Lieutenant Colonel Karel Klapálek, a legionnaire from World War I and later a legendary figure among the men who helped re-establish Czechoslovakia, was named commander of the battalion. The core of the Czechoslovak military in the Middle East was comprised of about 200 men who had crossed the border into Palestine after escaping Syria under dramatic circumstances. Most of the men had been recruited from refugees who had escaped German-occupied Czechoslovakia (the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia).

Volunteers from Palestine and other locations were gradually added to the unit. The main contingent that boosted the battalion to a wartime level came from the Soviet Union, where they had been interned as the 1,000-man strong Eastern Group of the Czechoslovak Army. The Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion No. 11 – East then had 700 men in its ranks and was divided up into four infantry companies and a support troop company that included specialized anti-aircraft, machine gun, mortar, trench, and auxiliary platoons.

The battalion started training in Gedera, not far from Tel Aviv. At the end of 1940 and beginning of 1941, it was transferred to the Dead Sea in the Jericho area where it continued to train and acclimate to the difficult conditions in the Western Desert of Libya and Egypt. Military operations carried out in this inhospitable part of Africa had a single aim – to prevent the Germans and Italians from occupying Egypt and the Suez Canal. Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion No. 11 – East was sent to the front in the Western Desert in the spring of 1941. Its mission was to secure the Sidi Hanais area in the Marsa Matruh zone, where enemy units were attempting to break through. The battalion was temporary halted at the Halfaya Pass (also known as the “Hellfire Pass”) near Sallum. The Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion No. 11 – East was the only Czechoslovak land unit at the time that had joined the Czechoslovak pilots in England in the fight against Nazi Germany. Two years later, these men would add to the Czechoslovak land forces in England and start to prepare for the attack on continental Europe.