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From D-Day to V-Day

September 1944

September 3, 1944 - D-Day + 89

General Montgomery ordered the British Second Army to rapidly advance to the Rhine River and secure a crossing over the last major obstacle on the path into Germany. According to Monty’s orders, the First Canadian Army was to continue clearing the coastal sector.

The British I Corps surrounded Le Havre in the course of the day. The British 51st Infantry Division redeployed from St Valery to positions to the right of the British 49th Infantry. At the same time, preparations were started to launch the main attack on the city’s meticulously organized fortifications and the Le Havre harbor. The II Canadian Corps’ 4th Canadian Armored Division built a bridgehead to cross the Somme River in the Pont Remy area east of Abbeville, and then halted. Advancing on the left flank of the corps, the Polish 1st Armored Division crossed the river west of Abbeville.

In the British XII Corps sector, the 7th Armoured Division headed towards Ghent via Lillers, located on the Bethune – Aire highway. After making a rapid advance earlier, the British XXX Corps crossed the border between France and Belgium. Advancing towards Antwerp on the corps’ left flank, the British 11th Armoured Division won positions in the Lille-Tournai area despite strong enemy resistance. The British Guards Armoured Division headed towards Brussels and blocked the roads leading from the city.

In the course of September 3, 1944, the US XIX Corps remained in the area south of Tournai to hold the enemy in a pocket created to the southwest and west of Mons. The US V Corps received an order to convoy to a new zone on the US First Army’s right flank, regroup and then advance as quickly as possible to the Meuse River. The tank units from the 3rd Armored Division enjoyed success when they conquered Mons in the course of the day. In the meantime, the 1st Infantry Division advanced and put pressure on the disorganized enemy in the Mons – Bavay – les Forét de Mormal area.

Tank units from the US XX Corps’ 7th Armored Division retreated to Sedan. The 7th Armored Division was to return to its original positions the next day, but this time with full gas tanks. By September 3, 1944, the airfield near Reims was ready enough to start receiving transport airplanes carrying supplies. Thanks to this, in the course of the day the 4th Armored Division was supplied with 8,000 gallons of valuable gasoline. For the 4th Armoured Division this meant that it could continue its combat missions and chase down the enemy. On the same day, General Patton visited the command of the US XII Corps and arranged an attack on the Mosel River and the Siegfried Line (“Westwall”) with the corps’ commander, Major General Eddy.

In the south of France, the capitulation of Lyon meant that the Seventh Army had completed its combat mission. The US VI Corps was ordered to continue to pursue the enemy to the Belfort Pass along the Lons le Saunier – Besancon line. The French II Corps advanced along the northwestern bank of the Saone River on the Dijon – Epinal axis. Units from the US VI Corps’ 36th Infantry Division continued their advance northwards to Macon. Maneuvering at the vanguard of the attack formation, the 117th Cavalry Squadron (Mechanized) reached Bourg-en-Bresse and Montrevel, but the strong German counterattack out of Meximieux caused heavy damages to the squadron. The 3rd Infantry Division advanced in the corps’ central zone. The French 2nd Corps continued its northwesterly advance on the left flank of French Army B, made contact with the units that had landed in Normandy during Operation Overlord, and took control of Villefranche in the area north of Lyon.

The third day of September was very busy for the Czechoslovak pilots in the west. Fighters from the No. 310 and No. 312 Squadrons RAF took off on a mission to escort a large bombing formation of Halifaxes. Nearly 100 four-engine aircraft headed for the space over the airfield in Soesterberg, the Netherlands, as part of Operation Ramrod 1258. On this day, Bomber Command put a huge force of 675 airplanes into action: 348 Lancasters, 315 Halifaxes and 12 Mosquitoes. In all there were six heavy raids carried out on the airfield in the southern Netherlands. All of the attacks were evaluated as successful. During the entire mission, only one Halifax taking part in a raid on Venlo was lost.

Col Josef Prokopec, a pilot for the Czechoslovak No. 310 Squadron RAF, explained years later, “We were in the air for 90 minutes, and besides the 310, the No. 312 Squadron was also in action. We took off, a total of 24 Spitfires from the two squadrons, at 1630 hours. As the weather was less than ideal that day, the pilots soon reached the cloud cover. Visibility was terrible, so we were forced to fly just using our instruments. We were in the air for just ten minutes when suddenly one of us, W/O Antonín Škach, departed from the formation, flew through the clouds and then suddenly, without trying to make any sort of escape maneuver, crashed into the ground near St. Michael’s at Wade in England. Into the land that had received us as refugees a few years earlier, that gave us the hope to live, the land we were determined to protect and fight with against the Nazis. The mission continued on, though, and the misfortune that accompanied the Czechoslovak pilots that day seemed to have no end. On the way back after completing the bomber escort, a four-member patrol from the No. 312 Squadron attacked the airfields in Gilze – Rijen, the Netherlands. The flak, which had not been paralyzed by heavy bombing earlier, shot down flying ace F/Lt Otto Smik’s plane. Compared to W/O Škach, though, Smik was lucky. He made an emergency landing and shortly thereafter was saved by members of the Dutch resistance movement. He returned to England on 5 November, 1944. By then I was already serving in the No. 312 Squadron, so I was able to savor his return along with the others. Otto was a direct chap, very friendly and the valedictorian of the pilot school. He was one of the best in his class,” Prokopec wrote in regards to the course of events on September 3, 1944.

The No. 311 Squadron RAF also experienced a few dramatic moments which luckily had a happy end. As part of their tasks stemming from their service for Coastal Command, four B-24 Liberators were sent out over the North Sea from the Tain air base. It was shortly after 0700 hours when the radar operator on board W/O Jedounek’s bomber located a target. Was it an enemy or Allied aircraft? Five minutes after the first contact, everything was clear. It was a German two-engine Junkers Ju 88, flying low over the sea and unaware of Jedounek’s Liberator. The Czechoslovaks decided to attack, even though a bomber is definitely not the best aircraft to use in a dogfight. The Liberator shook under the fusillade of the aircraft’s guns. As soon as the German discovered that he was not alone in the sky, he decided to disappear immediately – and in the end he was successful. Even so, it was one of the most exciting moments in a long time for the Czechoslovak pilots operating as part of Coastal Command in an otherwise monotonous, yet necessary service.

In France, the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade was still landing. The unloading of the vehicles and materiel was slowed by a huge storm that ripped through the English Cannel on September 3. The situation was also complicated in England, when the loading of tanks onto the ships was halted for some time because it was necessary to get British troops to France quickly. As a result, the last parts of the Czechoslovak Brigade reached the French mainland on September 8, 1944.