145 The Liberation of Chartres . . . And A Tank.pdf

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battle
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THE LIBERATION OF
CHARTRES . . . AND A TANK
Number 145
9
770306
154097
£4.25
NUMBER 145
© Copyright
After the Battle
2009
Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey
Editor: Karel Margry
Published by
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By mid-August 1944, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, the commander of the US
Third Army, found himself in command of four corps of two divisions each (minus the
VIII Corps in Brittany). While half of the XV Corps was facing north in the Argentan
area, the corps headquarters and two divisions were heading eastwards, as were the
XX and the XII Corps. On the 15th Patton instructed the XV and the XX Corps to estab-
lish bridgeheads over the Eure river at Dreux and Chartres; on the army’s right wing,
the XII Corps was to seize Châteaudun and Orléans and protect the flank along the
Loire River. Patton had alerted his corps commanders to advance beyond these objec-
tives but the commander of the US 12th Army Group, Lieutenant General Omar N.
Bradley, exerted a restraining influence. Concerned with the drain on communication
and supply resources that the rapid advance was imposing, Bradley restricted Patton’s
drive eastwards to Dreux, Chartres and Orléans. However, he removed his restrictions
on the 17th and by the morning of August 19 the leaders of the XV Corps reached the
Seine near Mantes.
Above:
On August 16, about 3.30 p.m. (see the church clock) ele-
ments of the XII Corps get a rousing reception as they drive eastwards. They belong to
the 35th Infantry Division and are probably part of the 320th Infantry Regiment group
advancing towards Châteaudun. Faintly discernible on the shoulder of the GI standing
on the right can be seen the division’s ‘Santa Fe’ shoulder patch.
CONTENTS
THE LIBERATION OF CHARTRES . . .
AND A TANK
2
WAR CRIME
The Hérouvillette Murders
14
PRESERVATION
Gate Guardian Aircraft
30
IT HAPPENED HERE
Kapooka Training Incident
34
UNITED STATES
When Japan attacked California
43
READERS’ INVESTIGATION
War Grave Mysteries in Spain
50
Front Cover:
June 4, 2008: the wreck of an M5
light tank of the US 7th Armored Division is lifted
from the hole in which it has lain buried for 64
years in Rue des Perriers in the French town of
Chartres. (Guillermo Osorio)
Centre Pages:
This Hurricane replica Gate
Guardian was unveiled in April 2009 at the
former RAF aerodrome at North Weald, Essex.
(James Teagle)
Back Cover:
After lying buried for over 50 years
as the enigmatic ‘Major William Martin’ (The
Man Who Never Was), Glyndwr Michael’s name
was finally inscribed on his headstone in the
Roman Catholic cemetery at Huelva, Spain, in
January 1998 (see page 54). (CWGC)
Acknowledgements:
For their assistance with the
Chartres story, the Editor would like to thank the
City of Chartres, particularly Jean-Guy Muriel and
his team and Guillermo Osorio who took the
photos of the M5 recovery; Christian Dours and
Eric Santin, author of
1944 - Eure-et-Loir, Derniers
combats
(see
derniers.combats.28@orange.fr).
For
their help with the Hérouvillette story, he thanks
Wybo and Marco Boersma, Luuk Buist, Arie-Jan
van Hees and Hans Houterman.
Photo Credits:
BA — Bundesarchiv; IWM —
Imperial War Museum, London; TNA — The
National Archives, Kew; USNA — US National
Archives.
Jean Paul tracked down the spot in Epuisay, 70 kilometres north-west of Orléans. By
then, mid-August, the campaign in Normandy was ending and the 7th Armored Divi-
sion, which disembarked on August 11 at Omaha Beach, arrived too late to take part.
(Actually, only five US armoured divisions are credited as having participated in the Nor-
mandy campaign, plus the French 2ème Division Blindée which was under American
command. The first US armoured division to land on the continent was the 2nd
Armored on June 9 which joined the battle on June 13 with the V Corps. The 3rd
Armored arrived on June 23, entering combat on the 29th; the 4th Armored arrived on
July 13, entering combat on the 17th; the 6th Armored arrived on July 19, entering com-
bat on the 25th, and the 5th Armored arrived on July 25, entering combat on August 1.
The same day the French 2ème Division Blindée arrived, joining the battle on the 8th
with the XV Corps.) The 7th Armored went into action on the 14th with the XX Corps.
2
ATB
USNA
On the evening of August 14, 1944, the US 7th Armored Divi-
sion, racing across France after the Allied break-out from Nor-
mandy, was given a new objective: the city of Chartres. The
division commander, Major General Lindsay McD. Silvester,
assigned the task to his Combat Command B. Reaching the
northern edge of the city in the afternoon of the 15th, CCB
organised two task forces evenly composed of elements from
the 23rd Armored Infantry Battalion and the 31st Tank Battal-
ion. These two Shermans (note cast and welded hull) of Com-
pany B of the 31st were photographed on August 16.
THE LIBERATION OF CHARTRES . . . AND A TANK
Following its break-out from the Cotentin
Peninsula at the end of July 1944, the US
Third Army under Lieutenant General
George S. Patton was advancing at speed,
both west along the coast to Brittany and
inland to the east. On the afternoon of
August 13, the 7th Armored Division was
moving inland from its recent arrival at
Omaha Beach when it received orders from
XX Corps that it was to pass through Le
Mans and clear the roads for the 35th Divi-
sion of XII Corps to advance on Orléans. At
noon the following day, while the division
was still assembling near La Ferté-Bernard,
and some of its components were still coming
from the beaches, the XX Corps comman-
der, Major General Walton H. Walker
arrived at their command post to order the
division commander, Major General Lindsay
McD. Silvester, to move out at once toward
Dreux, 80 kilometres to the north-east. That
afternoon, the 7th Armored encountered
only scattered resistance as its three columns
advanced toward the town.
However at the same time XV Corps was
also preparing to advance on Dreux with two
divisions departing from the Argentan area
so, to avoid any confusion, during the
evening of the 14th, Third Army gave XX
Corps a new objective: Chartres.
As his columns were advancing to Nogent-
le-Rotrou General Silvester was ordered to
By Jean Paul Pallud
turn east and take Chartres. Mindful that the
River Seine would still have to be crossed, Sil-
vester dispatched Brigadier General John B.
Thompson’s Combat Command B (CCB) to
take the new objective but at the same time
sent his CCA and CCR north of Chartres,
into the area between that city and Dreux.
On the afternoon of August 15, just as the
7th Armored Division was approaching his
area, General der Infanterie Kurt von der
Chevallerie, the commander of the German
1. Armee holding the ground between
Chartres and the Loire, was chairing a con-
USNA
Major General Walton H. Walker, the commander of US XX
Corps, and Major General Silvester holding a roadside confer-
ence ‘near Chartres’ as troops of the division wait for further
orders. This picture was actually taken on August 19.
The official caption gave no indication as to exactly where the
photo had been taken, but Jean Paul found the spot at Thivars,
a village on the RN10 eight kilometres south of Chartres, at the
bridge over the River Eure.
3
ATB
USNA
Left:
In afternoon of August 15, the lead American troops sur-
prised a German supply convoy near the château at Spoir, nine
kilometres south-west of Chartres. Here an American medic
ference in the city. Chartres had been desig-
nated as an assembly point where remnants
of units were to be reorganised to reinforce
the defences west of the Seine. Initially some
scattered elements of the 352. Infanterie-
Division were deployed in Chartres but from
the 15th they were shifted northwards
whereupon the town was taken over by two
battalions — about 800 men — of
Sicherungs-Regiment 6 sent south from the
Paris area. This regiment was part of the 325.
Sicherungs-Division, the security division in
charge of the French capital since 1942, and
it was made up of troops that were over-age
and poorly armed.
Another unit that joined the defenders
was Flak-Abteilung FAS 31 which comprised
six batteries with ten 88mm guns and an
equal number of 37mm and 20mm anti-air-
craft guns. Formed earlier in 1944 from
cadets and instructors of Flak-Artillerie-
Schule 31 (West), the unit was back from the
Normandy battles where it had already suf-
fered losses. Another sizeable unit was Fla-
Bataillon 959 with nine 20mm quadruple
Flak guns. (This ad-hoc formation estab-
lished in 1943 by the Military Governor in
France was named Fliegerabwehr-Bataillon,
hence the abbreviation Fla-Bataillon and not
Flak-Abteilung.)
In addition, there were elements from
Panzerjäger-Abteilung 18 of Feld-Division
18 (L) with some 75mm Pak guns; personnel
from the nearby Luftwaffe airfield; elements
of Schnelle Brigade 30; others of Flieger-
Regiment 32 from Rochefort on the Atlantic
coast; Feldkommandantur 748 from Rennes
in Brittany, and men from Flak-Abteilungen
124, 441, 842 and 960.
takes care of a Luftwaffe officer who was one of the wounded.
Right:
Eric Santin took this comparison for us near the château
entrance.
LÈVES
LUCÉ
CHARTRES
BONVILLE
THIVARS
Reproduced from Michelin Sheet No. 60, 1:200,000
In all, the German strength added up to
around 3,000 men. The commander of
Sicherungs-Regiment 6, Oberst Walter
Garbsch, had the difficult job of welding this
motley collection of troops into a coherent
force.
The 7th Armored’s CCB was now in the
Courville sector, about 15 kilometres west
of Chartres, ready to launch the attack on
the city. One task force was to enter the
city from the west and another from the
south.
USNA
Left:
CCB’s Task Force 1 advanced on the city from the west but
encountered resistance at the suburb villages of Lèves and
Mainvilliers.
Right:
Mainvilliers has developed much since the
4
war but, using the spires of Chartres cathedral to get the correct
angle, Jean Paul took this approximate comparison from the
cemetery that appears in middle distance in the wartime photo.
ATB
ERIC SANTIN
USNA
Leading CCB’s Task Force 2 on August 15, Company B of the
23rd Armored Infantry Battalion was charged with taking the
village of Bonville, four kilometres south-east of the city. How-
ever, the company lost its way and by evening found itself far
away to the south. Task Force 2 finally reached Bonville on the
afternoon of the 16th. When this photo of their bivouac there
was taken two days later, German troops were still holding out
at Le Coudray, midway between them and Chartres.
During the evening of August 15, Major
Leslie A. Lohse, the 31st Tank Battal-
ion’s S-3, set off on a reconnaissance of
the southern sector of Chartres in an M5
light tank. His plan was apparently to
scout out Le Coudray, just west of
Bonville, where Company B of the 23rd
Armored Infantry Battalion should have
been. Driving along Rue des Perriers, the
M5 reached the junction with Rue Saint
Brice, turned right in the direction of the
Eure river bridge and was then stopped
by a rocket-launcher projectile fired by a
German party in a house at the corner.
Major Lohse was awarded the Silver
Star on September 1, 1944, his citation
reading: ‘Major Leslie A. Lohse (Army
Serial Number 0409019), Cavalry, 31st
Tank Battalion, United States Army, for
distinguishing himself by gallantry in
action on August 15, 1944, in the area of
Chartres, France. As acting battalion
commander, he was ordered to attack
the city of Chartres. Because of its
strategic importance, the enemy had
anti-tank weapons of all types emplaced
throughout the city proper and its out-
skirts. Although realising that storming
this virtual fortress would be a haz-
ardous and costly operation, Major
Lohse rode in the vanguard of the
attacking force. His tank was set ablaze
and put out of action by an 88mm shell
and anti-tank rockets. Under a hail of
machine-gun and rifle fire he aided in
putting out the fire and took cover only
after other members of the crew had
done so. He concealed himself in an
enemy headquarters for a time, and
then made his way through enemy lines
to rejoin his unit three days later. Major
Lohse’s fearless leadership and coura-
geous example were an inspiration to
the men who fought under his com-
mand.’
Bottom left:
Rue Saint Brice,
looking in the direction of Chartres, with
the junction of Rue des Perriers in mid-
dle distance. The Eure bridge is about
100 metres behind the photographer.
ATB
CHRISTIAN DOURS
5
USNA

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