On 1st August 1944 the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment was still engaged in Operation Bluecoat, Monty’s drive southward on the boundary between Panzer Group West and the German 7th Army, to the west of Caen. Dick’s ‘B’ Squadron was sent in to recce Amayé-sur-Seulles (west of Villers Bocage) in support of 50th Division and took an active part in its liberation by 69th Brigade (the East Yorks and the Green Howards) despite fierce opposition. Don Aiken writes that Eric Brewer’s Assault Troop came under fire and sustained casualties and even Eric, in his usual re-assuring letter home admitted that they “came up against some stiff opposition and were held up for about an hour”. He also describes seeing about 120 prisoners give themselves up, many in poor condition and happy to surrender. Eric’s Troop commander, Lt. Philip Truman, received the Military Cross for his part in the action at Amayé-sur-Seulles, which is also included in Major Frank Harding’s citation for the M.C.
Meanwhile 11th Armoured Division had pushed forward, liberating le Bény-Bocage on 1st August and reaching the outskirts of Vire on 2nd August with some elements of 61st Recce, who found the town virtually undefended. However, 11th Armoured were ordered east, leaving the town to the Americans. By the time XIX Corps arrived German forces had rushed in re-enforcements and Vire was not liberated until the 8th August. According to Eric Brewer Lt-General Demsey, commander of the British forces, later told 61st Recce that they’d been three days ahead of 7th Armoured Division and had to wait for them outside Vire.
However, on 4th and 5th August Eric was on recce near Villers-Bocage, which had finally been liberated by the 1st Dorsets (Dick’s first regiment) of 50th Division. The town was one of the Division’s original D-Day targets, almost two months ago.
Dick had a ‘rest’ day on the 4th August collecting food, ammo, petrol, etc and wrote to Chotie, who had managed to spend some time at home with her family in Poole, enjoying the sun.
Some of Roy Howard’s ‘A’ Squadron troop received severe injuries while investigating a booby-trapped building on 4th August. Snipers, booby-traps and mines were the perils of any advance in Normandy.
61st Recce had taken over ‘holding the line’ near Caumont-l’Eventé from 43rd Division (another of Dick’s former units) who advanced against fierce German resistance to secure the important high ground of Mont Pinçon, south of Aunay-sur-odon, on 6th August. On 7th August the Canadian 1st Army renewed it’s offensive towards Falaise with Operation Totalize but were halted at Quesnay (north-west of Falaise and Potigny) by the 11th. On the 8th Eisenhower, Montgomery and Bradley agreed a new plan to encircle German forces in Normandy with American forces swinging east to meet the Canadians at Argentan, south-east of Falaise.
On 8th August Eric Brewer wrote home to say he was ‘still in a kind of reserve’ and helping with the cooking. On 10th August they moved on, bringing in six prisoners, and on the 11th August Major Harding with ‘B’ Squadron captured an important hill (Point 266), north of Condé-sur-Noireau, ‘and destroyed or captured all the enemy on the hill’, holding it until relieved. Eric Brewer wrote “plenty of mortars, shells and spandaus". Don Aiken says they moved to a cross-roads near Aunay-sur-Odon on 11th August where they came under shellfire and a driver in his troop was killed.
Chotie, now at Shurdington near Cheltenham (her Ack-Ack unit had moved again), visited the dentist on 11th August.
Dick wrote to Chotie again on Saturday 12th August, on a ‘rest’ day again, which “involves a vast amount of work as all the armoured cars have to be maintained, all guns taken down and cleaned and all ammo, food, water, etc replenished. It’s a good six to eight hour job, when you consider that my crews have to do their own cooking as well.” He was in “quite a pleasant spot…but the artillery is pretty shocking…we’re living in a continual barrage.”
61st Recce’s Lieutenant Flint was awarded a Military Cross for his reconnaissance in Lénault (south of Mont Pinçon) where he and his troop encountered and escaped the enemy and then directed mortar fire on their positions. Eric Brewer’s commander Lieutenant Truman, carried out a classic patrol clearing up ‘a spot of trouble’ near Mont Pinçon. Regimental HQ was set up at nearby at le Plessis-Grimault, “one of the most evil-smelling places in the Bocage” – presumably due to the remains of action in the area.
On 14th August a new offensive, Operation Tractable, was launched to close the gap in the circle between the Canadians and the US 3rd Army and trap the remains of German 7th Army and Panzer Group West in the ‘Falaise Pocket’. XXX Corps (now commanded by Lt-General Brian Horrocks) advanced towards Condé-sur-Noireau with 50th Division and 61st Recce, to push at the base of the pocket. Dick executed his own minor heroics during this advance when overtaking “some armoured cars of a rival regiment, halted short of some suspicious-looking grass turves in the middle of the road. ‘We can’t get on,’ they said, ‘Mines.’ Without a word Williams threw the turves in the ditch and drove on.”
Dick wrote to Chotie again on the 16th August “in some very lovely country now – more open and rolling, something like the Sussex Downs though more wooded.” He’d very nearly had his third bath since landing and did have his third beer, “which makes 3½ pints since we landed.”
50th Division were now near Condé-sur-Noireau, which was liberated by the 11th Armoured Division on 17th August. On 18th August the ‘big push’ began – 61st Recce moved forward towards Argentan with ‘the Black Bull’ (11th Armoured Division). East of Putanges on19th August ‘A’ Squadron’s Lieutenant Griffiths was leading his troop ‘with the greatest of boldness against forces far superior in numbers’. 11th Armoured Division captured 900 prisoners while pushing the Germans back north of Argentan.
On 19th August the Canadian 1st Army, with the 1st Polish Armoured Division, finally linked up with the US 3rd Army at Chambois but were unable to hold back the tide of escaping German forces. Approximately 40,000 Germans escaped. More than 10,000 Germans died in the Falaise pocket and 50,000 were taken prisoner (2,000 by 61st Reconnaissance). Eric Brewer’s diary records that 61st Recce pushed on through the gap taking 200 prisoners on 20th August. They advanced 20–30 miles and were the first English boys the civilians had seen.
The US 3rd Army took Argentan on 20th August after eight days of fighting and waiting there for the Canadians to break through. The Falaise Gap was finally closed on 21st August. 61st Recce were advancing 30 miles a day, being mobbed by the newly liberated French in the towns and villages. On 22nd August they were at Falaise (north-west of Argentan), now a devastated killing field filled with the bodies of Germans piled several feet high – even the planes flying 10,000 feet above could smell the dead, which included thousands of horses used for transport.
After a brief time ‘back at base’ 61st recce moved to Vernon, on the banks of the Seine between Rouen and Paris, on 25th August – the day of its liberation.
Dick wrote to Chotie on 26th August, with a few hours to call his own. “There’s little or no devastation where we are at present, which makes things so much more pleasant.” This also meant the locals were friendlier – Eric Brewer enjoyed a warm welcome from a couple at Vernon and Dick had met a very hospitable chap living in a barn after his house was bombed. While they were glad to accept alcohol - hoarded and brought out to celebrate the liberation - the British forces had been instructed to refuse meals “as the French people don’t even get enough for themselves, let alone anyone else” (Eric Brewer).
Letter written on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th August 1944
61st Recce Rac
BLA
Monday Aug. 28th
Chotie Darling,
Many thanks for your letter dated the 23rd which I’ve just this moment received.
Glad to hear you’re home at last if only for six days, and the prospect of a month’s course is quite a pleasant one to look forward to. Don’t do anything too strenuous will you? The first course I had was a P.T one* and they gave me a bending all right….
I’ll send this to your home address and they can forward it as soon as they hear from you in Scotland.
I imagine it’s pretty crowded at Parkstone at the moment now that the coastal ban has been lifted – mother says it’s pretty bad in Bognor.
Sorry to hear about the pubs** – especially the Sloop. It’s Dad’s pet grouse, of course, at present, though you’d better be in training for Scotland.
Very sorry to hear about Adrian – I didn’t realise he was over here.
I may have a chance to contact Ted in the next few weeks though it’s very difficult. I spent over two hours trying to find Brinner today but without success. Apparently he’s still at Base, Somewhere. At any rate it’s safer there.
I’ve had a fairly quiet time lately but can’t guarantee it will last.
I’ve been in many villages first hand and have had a great welcome from the people. We’re lucky this way of course – it’s one of the few compensations of being in front all the time.
I’m very fit and still very happy here – I suppose the ability to chat with the people wherever you go helps a lot.
I wish I could see you again, Darling, but I’d sooner get this business over, than go on leave and have to come back again.
I think we’ve got the worst of it over but I can’t pretend there aren’t big battles to come. We’ve beaten a complete army now, but we’ve had precious little time to rest on our laurels. They still have armies left, but I think we can beat them also.
I’ve just heard the good news of a day’s rest tomorrow so I’ll write some more then.
Goodnight, my Darling.
Well, Precious, Tuesday has arrived after a wretched night. I’ve never experienced such a storm as we had last night – simply torrents of rain with added accompaniment of thunder and lightning. I got soaked through and haven’t yet dried out.
It’s rather a pity as we’re in very fine country, as I heard it aptly expressed – country that was never meant to hear more than the song of the birds or the pop of a Champagne cork….
Aren’t the radio programmes wretched? We have a radio on all day (in harbour) and the stuff they pound out is chronic. I get heartily sick of the whole thing.
I’m writing this in a barn full of new-mown hay, very pleasant indeed. The rain outside is pretty steady and doesn’t look like stopping today at any rate.
I don’t suppose I can write another letter to reach you before the 6th, so here’s wishing you all the very best for your 21st. As soon as you can give me the address of an account you can use I send on a cheque – ‘fraid it’s all I can do out here.
Must close here but will try to write you again tomorrow
All my love, Darling
Dicker
P.T.O
P.S. Found the enclosed mags. in Villers Bocage some long time ago. The magazines were quite indifferent so I just cut out the best. The rest of the stuff were third-rate patterns. I thought the kiddies stuff the best. Am I giving you ideas?
R.
*Dick became a P.T. Instructor soon after joining the Army in August 1940. Chotie attended a P.T. course at Newbattle Abbey, Dalkeith, Scotland from 30th August 1944.
**Not sure what was happening to the pubs around this time but alcohol was at it’s scarcest in Christmas 1994/45 on the home front (see Christmas under Fire).
© Chotie Darling
On 29th August 61st Recce crossed the Seine on a pontoon bridge and began their ‘swan’ across France towards Belgium. According to Eric Brewer’s diary they were near to Elbeuf (by Rouen) on 30th August, the same day that the Normandy capital was liberated by the Canadian Army. The next night they were almost 100 miles further on near Amiens – this critical town on the Somme was liberated by XXX Corps on 31st August after a night march by the 11th Armoured Division.
61st Reconnaissance in Humber Armoured car at Beauvais, between Rouen and Amiens (IWM)
According to Colonel Brownrigg these were the most exhilarating days of the campaign. They were protecting the left flank of XXX Corps but were sometimes 70 miles ahead of divisional headquarters and collected an enormous amount of prisoners. Some were handed to the French Resistance fighters “who tagged onto us” - they took them to the woods and shot them (from Eric Postles' book).
Speed was essential – they had orders to capture the port of Antwerp in Belgium and the V1 rocket-launching sites terrorising London and the south-east. (Eric Brewer mentions he saw a ‘Buzz Bomb’ launch site on 31st August.) The welcome in French villages and towns was now overwhelming and slowed progress so that often the ‘honours of liberation’ were left to the rearguard echelons. There were sharp engagements and very little sleep – Sandy Handley confessed that one morning it was 61st Recce’s job to wake up the Guards commander (the Guards Armoured Division with 50th Division led XXX Corps in ‘the swan’) but they all overslept. Monty had urged them to make every kilometre “a bomb less for England”.
On 1st August Lt-General Patton’s US 3rd Army became fully operational. They swept west into Brittany conquering ‘a lot of real estate’ (Bradley) but failing to seize intact the critical western ports. Rennes was liberated on 4th August, Vannes on the 5th, Angers and Alençon on the 10th, Nantes on the 12th and eventually, the Channel citadel of Saint-Malo on the 17th. Circling north to Normandy they were at Argentan by the 13th August.
The Germans had launched a major counter-offensive at Mortain (south of Vire) on 7th August, attempting to cut through to the coast and sever the US spearhead. This was a disaster, thinning their defences further east so the British, including 61st Recce, could at last push through, while Ultra (information via the Bletchley Park code-crackers) had prepared the American commander General Bradley for the attack. Hitler demanded another offensive on 16th August but instead von Kluge issued orders for a full-scale retreat and was instantly replaced by Field-Marshall Walter Model, who directed plans for escape through the Falaise gap.
By now 'Pluto', the Allies undersea fuel pipeline between the Solent and Cherbourg, was operational. Free French forces in Normandy began secretly hoarding fuel for a drive on Paris.
On 15th August Allied Forces including the Free French landed on the south coast of France in Operation Dragoon and on the 17th the Vichy government (except for Marshall Pétain) fled to Germany.
Chartres was liberated on 18th August and the next day the Battle of Paris began with an uprising by the French resistance – communists led the people onto the streets while the rival Gaullists seized government buildings and institutions. On 20th August the US 3rd Army crossed the Seine north-west of Paris. Free French forces reached the centre of Paris on 24th August greeted by a peal of bells from the great church of Nôtre-Dame and, despite Hitler’s order to burn the city, Paris was liberated almost unscathed on 25th August.
On 23rd August Free French Forces had linked up with the US 3rd Army near Bordeaux, on the west coast of France, and the Germans retreated from the city. In south-east France Cannes, Grasse, and Grenoble were liberated and, after fierce fighting, Toulon and Marseilles on 28th August and Nice on the 31st.
In Italy Florence was liberated by the British 8th Army soon after 3rd August, when the Germans blew all the bridges except the Ponte Vecchio.
With the Russian army on its doorstep the Polish Home Army began an uprising in Warsaw and was initially successful in taking control of large areas of the city. RAF planes dropped weapons and supplies but Stalin set up a puppet Polish government in Lublin and left the uprising to burn itself out. 350 Jews were liberated from the Gesiówka concentration camp as Himmler ordered thousands of Jews from the ghetto at Łódź, south-west of Warsaw, to their deaths at Auschwitz.
On 2nd August almost a thousand Roma and Sinti left in the Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz were killed in the gas chambers.
In Amsterdam a young Jewish girl and her family were taken prisoner on 4th August. Ann Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945 but her diary still tells the world the story of the Holocaust.
On 20th August the Allies began to bomb I.G.Farben synthetic fuel factory at Auschwitz with its enslaved labour force of Jews, British Prisoners of War and east European workers. Primo Levi, the Italian chemist and author of one of the most famous accounts of Auschwitz ‘If This Is a Man’, survived the bombing.
The Russian army had captured Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania, on 1st August. They began to attack Romania on 19th August and the King staged a ‘Royal Coup’, removing the fascist leader Antonescu and declaring war against Germany on 25th August. The Bulgarians also withdrew from the Axis coalition on 26th August, becoming a neutral state while the Slovak resistance began an armed insurrection on the 29th.
In the far east Chinese and American forces captured Myitkina in Burma (Myanmar) on 3rd August but the Japanese Ichi-Gō advance into southern China continued with the capture of Heng-Yang in Hunan on 8th August.
US Marines had seized the Japanese base at Tinian in the Marianas Island on 1st August and by 10th August Guam was liberated and all of the Marianas were in Allied hands.
While war raged around the world representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the USA met at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington to agree the structure of a new international organisation for peace and security – the United Nations.
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