• Serial
  • June 1944
  • July 1944
  • August 1944
  • September 1944
  • October 1944
  • November 1944
  • December 1944
  • January 1945
  • February 1945
  • March 1945
  • April 1945
  • May 1945

From D-Day to V-Day

August 1944

August 9, 1944 - D-Day + 64

The II Canadian Corps from the First Canadian Army continued to advance southwards along the main road between Caen and Falaise. The 4th Canadian Armored Division occupied Bretteville le Rabet. On the same day, following a fierce battle, the Polish 1st Armoured Division took Cauvicourt and Saint-Sylvain.

The US VIII Corps’ 6th Armored Division sent out a small unit to eliminate enemy forces in the Plouvien area that could threaten their rear. After the enemy was destroyed, the unit made contact with Task Force A maneuvering near Brest. The 83rd Infantry Division continued in its offensives on Saint-Malo, where the enemy’s core of defense was holed up in the citadel. Units from the 4th Armored Division left Lorient and headed towards Nantes. The US XV Corps cleared Le Mans and, with the 5th Armored Division on the right and the 2nd French Armored Division on the left, advanced northwards towards Alençon. Temporarily assigned to the US XV Corps, the 80th Infantry Division scouted out the area around Le Mans and captured the German troops who had already understood that resistance was futile. The US XX Corps’ 5th Infantry Division approached Angers.

The US First Army ordered its units to turn northeast towards Argentan, where they were to meet up with British troops advancing southwards and thus trap enemy forces in the Vire – Mortain – Domfort – Ger area. In the US VII Corps sector, an enemy counteroffensive headed towards Avranches started to run out of steam, but the fierce fighting continued. The 4th Infantry Division returned Lieutenant Colonel Van H. Bond’s 39th Infantry Division to the 9th “Old Reliables”. Although the US XIX Corps’ 28th Infantry Division was unable to move forward in the area around Gathemo, the 29th Infantry Division started to advance slowly in the Vire region. The US V Corps ordered the 2nd Infantry Division to send one reinforced battalion out to the southeast. The 102nd Cavalry Group (Mechanized), which had been assigned to the Indianheads, assisted units from the US XIX Corps’ 29th Infantry Division in fighting in the hills not far from Vire.

In the course of the day, fighter aircraft from the No. 310 Squadron RAF carried out several deep attacks on enemy targets in areas between the Dutch cities of Nijkerk and Leuwen.

A major part of the Czechoslovak land forces in the west was the Czechoslovak No. 200 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, created out of the Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion No. 11 – East in the Middle East in 1942. The regiment had three battalions, numbers 500, 501 and 502, each of which had four companies. The unit’s main weapons were Swedish-built Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft cannons. In addition to this, the regiment had communications and machine maintenance platoons. Training for the No. 200 Regiment was sped up due to the deterioration of the overall situation in the Western Desert. With a high level of spirit and dedication, the Czechoslovaks learned to use the new machinery – and mastered it perfectly, as time would show.

In November 1942, Montgomery, now commander of the British Eighth Army, was able to break through German positions near legendary El Alamein, and the Americans landed in northern Africa. The entire Czechoslovak No. 200 Light AA Regiment – East was then convoyed to the Jericho area near the Dead Sea at the beginning of December. As part of their acclimatization, they carried out exercises in conjunction with anti-aircraft barrages. At the end of December 1942, the regiment redeployed to the Western Desert – to a place the Czechoslovaks already knew very well, the port of Tobruk. The regiment was assigned the anti-aircraft defense of the entire coast, all the way up to Apolonia. The enemy’s air forces were very active in this area; daily raids by German and Italian aircraft were normal.

With the onset of spring 1943, as the situation on the African battlefield had started to quickly improve for the Allies, in as early as April 1943 the British war command decided to move the No. 200 Light AA Regiment to England where the Czechoslovak-British commission decided a new land unit would be established – the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade. In July 1943, the No. 200 Regiment landed at the wartime port of Tewfik on the legendary British merchant marines’ ship, the Mauretania, which had set out on a long sea voyage destined for Liverpool. There were over 7,000 people on the boat at the time, including 2,000 Czechoslovaks. After sailing around almost all of Africa, the Mauretania docked in Liverpool harbor on August 11, 1943. After landing, the Czechoslovak No. 200 Regiment was moved to a tent camp set up at Wivenhoe Park.

The No. 200 Regiment was welcomed in person by the Defence Minister of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, Sergej Ingr, on August 14, followed by President Edvard Beneš and Prime Minister Msgr Jan Šrámek on August 18, 1943. On this day, the soldiers who had fought under the command of Lt Col Karel Klapálek appeared before the president in their tropical uniforms for the last time. President Beneš decorated the unit’s battalion with a Czechoslovak War Cross for its role in the victory in the Middle East from 1940 to 1943. On this day, the Czechoslovak No. 200 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment – East became a thing of the past.