On 18th August 1944 Eric Brewer records that they “moved to Argentan for push with 11th Armoured Brigade (who were now moving towards Putanges from Flers)…Gerry’s route is through the Paris Road. According to the higher ups we should not meet much opposition as he is supposed to be just about demoralised to give in. Also they cannot have much arms left because of supplies being unable to reach them…I counted 56 lorry and half-tracks knocked out and 6 tigers* on the road.” The next day they "Moved forward to Argentan. In harbour waiting for orders and out on recce. Think we shall be moving tomorrow by the way the 11th Brigade are moving forward. Yanks have crossed the Seine and bypassed Paris in the north-west. They're also 50 mile inland on the South France invasion."(From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)
*German heavy tanks
61st Recce advance to Argentan via some action just east of Putanges on the River Orne and afterwards east of Chambois (north-east of Argentan) where Lt. Griffiths "led his troop with the greatest of boldness against forces far superior in numbers" (see the citation for Lt. Griffiths in 61st Recce Battle Honours).
18th August 1944 – after four days of fighting the city of Chartres, between Le Mans and Paris, is liberated by the American army.
On 19th August 11th Armoured Division was involved in pushing the Germans back north of Argentan and captured more than 900 prisoners.
19th August 1944 - The Falaise pocket is closed when Canadian 1st Army and the US 3rd Army link up at Chambois. However, the Allied blocking position - apart from the unsupported 1st Polish Armoured Division at Coudehard (isolated in the middle of the gap on Hill 262 and attacked from both sides by escaping and escaped German tanks) - is unable to hold back the tide of escaping German forces. The gap is held open by II SS Panzer Corps fighting a furious battle with the Poles and Canadians of the 4th Armoured Division. Approximately 40,000 German troops manage to escape from the encirclement but leave behind more than 3,000 vehicles. The concentration of German columns moving in broad daylight is subjected to relentless attack from the air by the Allies. The dead were piled high and the area between Trun and Chambois, south-east of Falaise, became known as ‘The Shambles’. More than 10,000 Germans die in the Falaise pocket and about 50,000 are taken prisoner. The remains of German Army Group B withdraw to the northern bank of the River Seine.
19th August 1944 - The Battle for Paris begins with an uprising by the French resistance against the German occupiers. Parisian police, already on strike in protest against the German occupation, take over the Préfecture de la Police and hoist the tricolore - France's national flag.
The Soviet offensive in the Balkans begins with an attack on Romania. The German Army Group South Ukraine, thinly stretched from the Black Sea along the Rivier Dnestr and east of the Carpathian mountains, lose more than 350,000 men killed or captured and many Romanian formations disintegrate or desert. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)
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