8th July 1944 – on the Russian front the German 12th Corps surrenders with 57,000 men. The Germans have now lost 300,000 men in three weeks. (From WW2-net Timelines.)
Operation Charnwood continues with American bombing and resumption of the ground attack from the north. The British 3rd Division capture Saint-Contest to the north-west of the city and the Canadians, encountering fierce resistance further west took nearby Authie and then Cussy. (From 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7th June -9th July 1944’, a 60th Anniversary booklet.)
The Americans at last seize La Haye-du-Puits, on the western side of the western side of the Cherbourg Peninsula, level with Carentan (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).
For once Eric Brewer was away from the fighting: "Went to Bayeux for baths. Had look round." He wrote again to his parents "I looked round for something to send you but can't see anything worth getting, only a lot of junk." He never let his family know quite how near to the action he got "I don't think they needed a Recce out here as the nearest we have been to the front line is approximately 5 miles so as for you saying look after yourself I am safer than the rock of Gibraltar". Back home at Grays in Essex they were also facing danger from the V1 rockets "I hope the rocket bombs are not worrying you too much...keep looking out of the window and one of these times you will see me coming up the road and this time there will be no more khaki for me...I can't see how it can last to Christmas with the Russians pushing on as they are and the amount of stuff we and the Yanks must have coming into France...things will happen very soon, same as they did in North Africa, but our advance should be twice as fast so roll on, shall we say October eh?" (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)
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