Closing the Gap

Vincent J. Curtis

1 July 2019


Operation Tractable kinda-sorta ended on Aug 16^th, 1944, with the capture of Falaise by 2^nd Div. But the gap wasn’t closed.

On the 16^th, the 4^th Div and the 1^st Polish Armoured Division were ordered to take Trun and link up with the American 3^rd Army at Chambois.  The 1^st Polish outflanked the German defenses and, dividing itself into three battle groups, sent one to Chambois, one to Hill 262 (Mont Ormel), and another to the south of Trun, easing the its capture on the 18^th by 4^th Div.

The gap, about four miles wide and through which the German 7^th Army had to pass, was spanned by the Dives River.  The Dives formed an impassable barrier to vehicular traffic except at two points, Moissy and St. Lambert-sur-Dives.  The hamlet of Moissy had a ford, led to by a single lane dirt track; next to it was a narrow foot bridge.

St. Lambert, a village of 150 souls, had a two-lane bridge that was strong enough to support a Panther tank.  The gap area was flat, wide-open, and easily observed from the heights around Trun, ideal killing ground for artillery and Typhoons.

Capturing Trun, the 4^th Div was nearly spent, but did send a battle group forward to seize St. Lambert.  The battle group comprised B and C Coys of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, about fifty men each, and C Squadron of the South Alberta Regiment, the armoured recce unit of 4^th Div.  In overall command was Major David Currie of the SAR.  The task of Currie Force was to stop the passage of 100,000 Germans.

Backstopping the Dives position, three miles to the east were two Polish battlegroups on Hill 262.  They had with them Capt Pierre Sevigny an artillery FOO for the 58^th Bty, 4^th Medium Regiment.  After crossing the Dives, escaping Germans had to pass around Hill 262, and the Poles scourged them with tank and small arms fire as well as Sevigny’s artillery fire.  Over the 36 hours from the 20^th to 21^st August, Capt Sevigny was to win Poland’s highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.  His work inflicted thousands of casualties on the Germans and enabled the Poles to hold out against German attacks trying to re-open the gap.  Four depleted SS Panzer divisions east of the Dives repeatedly attacked the Poles, who fought them until they ran out of ammunition - and then fought them hand-to-hand. 

Currie Force approached St. Lambert at dusk on the 19^th - and was repulsed with the loss of two of its fifteen Shermans.  Pulling back 1,000 yards, Currie used the night to personally recce the defenses.  Attacking again at dawn, Currie Force gained half the village by noon, forming another gauntlet escaping Germans had to pass.  Currie Force repulsed repeated counterattacks, and near dusk surged ahead to capture the rest of the village.

As the battle progressed, columns of death began to sprout from the choke points   The corpses of men, horses (Wehrmacht transport was still largely horse-drawn) wrecked vehicles, artillery pieces, trucks and tanks were piling up along the roads, choking passage even more.

Discipline in the Wehrmacht began to crack.  Prisoners were being taken first by the dozen, then fifty and then a hundred at a time.  Pte E.H. McAllister of the Argylls was credited with capturing 160 men.  The famous picture of David Currie winning his VC shows a German officer surrendering to Argyll George Mitchell, CSM of C Coy, with Pte John Evans off to the right.  (A moment after the picture was taken, Mitchell buttstroked the Officer for looking arrogant.)

Before noon on the 21^st, 4^th Div pushed ahead from Trun, with the Canadian Grenadier Guards relieving the Poles.  Over 50,000 were trapped, and the German 7^th Army surrendered, Paris was liberated three days later.

For several feats of personal military prowess, his skillful and determined attacks and defense, and for demonstrating an epic coolness under fire for 36 hours, Major David Vivian Currie was awarded the Victoria Cross.
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