20th August 1944 – Allied planes at last begin to bomb IG Farben’s methanol plant at Auschwitz III (see ‘Hell’s Cartel’ by Diarmuid Jeffreys, Metropolitan books 2008) because it could be used in synthetic fuel production. The Poles had asked Bomber Command to target the railway lines to Auschwitz in January 1941 and reports confirming the gas chambers in June 1944 renewed the request. Auschwitz-Birkenau was now the last major Nazi death camp in operation and thousands of Jews continued to be killed there. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)
US 3rd Army secure the first crossing over the Seine at Mantes-la-Jolie (north-west of Paris) to Gassicourt. In Paris , while the communist resistance encourages uprising on the streets with the cry "Tous aux Barricades!", a Gaullist group seize the Hôtel de Ville.
Argentan, south-east of Falaise, is now fully in Allied hands after eight days of violent combat.
61st Recce appear to have left the Argentan area on 20th August - Eric Brewer wrote“Pushed on today through the gap. Took 200 prisoners, also plenty of vehicles have been knocked out round this area and bags of dead Gerry. We are the first English boys the civvy have seen...Made advance of 20-30 miles today. Took field hospital with wounded harbouring in woods for night”. (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)
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