Memorial De Lormeau

Yet on Tuesday the 8th, one week after Avranches, the tired troops prepared for the assault on Brest in the morning.

 

CCB on the right was to become reserve and shift to the rear of the center in the morning. The commander of CCB took over the center column which had had only one battle since Bree on 1 August, and was to attack through Gouesnou. CCA was to attack through Guipavas. The artillery, a total of five battalions, was posted to support all guns being able to reach the city.

 

One battalion of CCA suffered losses from artillery during the afternoon, and the artillery received counterbattery as it registered in the evening. In the meantime the cavalry was covering the flanks and rear. Intermittent small-arms fire to the north and northeast was heard during the day. The trains moving into Plouvien were fired upon by small arms and artillery from the rear!. Something was building up in the north. The absence of cub planes and the presence of the highest hedges we ever encountered made visual observation extremely difficult. About dark—2230 hours—the mystery was solved by the capture of Lt. General Spang, Commander of the 266th Division, who drove his car into an artillery position from the rear. His division which we by passed at Morlaix was marching towards us from the rear trying to get to Brest ! All through the night small-arms fire burst from every hedgerow around the division CP, the PW cage and all along the rear.

 

That proved to be the final “if” in our failure to capture Brest. Orders were issued during the night for all commands to leave a screen facing Brest, to reverse their directions, attack north in the morning, destroy the enemy in our rear and secure and assemble in the Plouvien area. 

 

The battle of 9 August was a massacre, CCB in the center, led by 15th Tank Battalion and the 9th Infantry hit the enemy main body (896th, 897th, and 898th Infantry) killed over 200 and captured 1000, CCR on the west (now the left) flank struck an enemy column at Bourg Blanc where the 50th Infantry with some of the 69th’s tanks destroyed the heavy weapons company of the German 851st Infantry, other mortars, machine guns, and an 88. CC A on the other (east) flank with the 68th’s Tanks and the casualty-depleted 44th Infantry caught part of the enemy at Plouvien and completed the debacle. A group of our fighter bombers joined in the action and completely wiped out a column of enemy trains and artillery on the Plouvien—Lesneven Road.

 

The remnants of the German division were gathered in during the ensuing two days. Our artillery enjoyed the unique experience of having some batteries firing south against Brest, and some north at the same time. The cavalry which had covered the division rear during the allnight skirmishing pulled to the flanks and extended the cordon about Brest preventing the Germans from entering or leaving the city.

 

 

On the afternoon of 9 August a battalion of the 28th Infantry, 8th Division, arrived by truck from Rennes and was given the mission of securing commanding ground near Guipavas to cover our projected renewal of the interrupted attack on Brest. The same day Task Force “A,” of VIII Corps reached Lesneven, and although unable to assist in the Brest, operation, was a great protection to our rear and covered the debarkation of supplies at the now enemy-evacuated Morlaix. But further attack on Brest was not destined for the 6th Armored. Before readjustments had been completed, orders arrived 12 August to merely contain the fortress with a single Combat Command and move the balance of the division to Lorient.

 

Source: An Epic of Brittany.

Brigadier General R. W. Grow, United States Army.

Military Review. Vol XXVI Nº 11 - Feb 1947