At 4 a.m. on August 18, the Poles’ forward elements moved out, only to be bogged down in large irrigation ditches that cut across their path. After daybreak, local guides helped the Poles find their way around the obstacles to firm ground. Zgorzelski was now pressed for time, since his reconnaissance elements had already reported enemy movement from Trun on the road to Vimoutiers.

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The Dragoons reached their objective first. From the high ground, they had a grandstand view of enemy units proceeding eastward. They quickly took up positions and opened fire with automatic weapons and anti-tank guns into the marching columns. Initially, the Germans were surprised and thrown into confusion, but soon infantry detachments, supported by tanks and self-propelled guns, were attacking the Poles. By that time, 20 tanks of the 24th Lancers had reached the high ground to the left of the Dragoons and joined the fight. The Germans directed their main effort against the 24th Lancers’ positions, exposing their left flank to the Dragoons. Long-range fire from Panther tanks knocked out several of the 24th Lancers’ tanks, but their Sherman Fireflies, armed with 17-pounder anti-tank guns, proved a match for the Panthers. In spite of heavy mortar fire support, the infantry attack broke down under the 10th Dragoons’ flanking machine-gun fire, and the Germans withdrew to the south. The swiftness with which the Poles secured the high ground enabled them to hold it with very low casualties.

While his tanks shelled Trun, Zgorzelski was told that units of the French 2nd Armored Division should be somewhere in the area, although a search for them brought no results. Instead, a regiment of the Canadian 4th Armored Division appeared, having heard the Poles’ recent engagement and moved toward the sound of the guns. Later that day, Zgorzelski received new orders to take Hill 137 and await supplies there. ‘High time, too,’ he remarked, ‘because by now, we were scraping the bottom of our ammunition racks and fuel tanks for our armor.’

The Polish troops secured Hill 137 at 11 p.m., but they slept on empty stomachs that night. Zgorzelski later learned that Germans who had crossed the Allied supply routes had attacked his support column, inflicting heavy losses and delaying the arrival of supplies until morning.

‘Now our division had to move in leap-frog fashion to alternatively secure immediate objectives with two battle groups,’ Zgorzelski wrote,’so that a reasonable degree of tactical cooperation between the battle groups and coordination of artillery support and binding up of supplies could be endeavored, while, at the same time, liaison with the neighboring division was maintained.’

General Maczek formulated a plan for cutting off the German retreat routes. First, a task force, consisting of two armored regiments and three infantry battalions from his division’s eastern group, was to capture and hold Mont Ormel, a complex consisting of Hills 262 North and 262 South, which the Poles referred to as the Maczuga (mace) because the hills’ map contours resembled that weapon. The western battle group would seize and hold the crossroads at Chambois. Divisional artillery would provide fire support for both groups, while the 10th Mounted Rifles and the divisional Reconnaissance Regiment (equipped with Cromwell tanks) were to be held in reserve.

The force originally assigned to take Mount Ormel was led by Major Aleksander Stefanowicz and was made up of his 1st Armored Regiment and two infantry companies of the Polish Highland Battalion. The second battle group included the remainder of the Highland Battalion and the 9th Infantry Battalion. After engaging units of the II SS Panzer Corps, the second column reached Mont Ormel at 5 p.m. The Polish Highland and 9th Infantry battalions joined it at 7. The second battle group had initially been given Chambois as its objective, but in view of the unexpected mix-up that caused it to move on Mont Ormel instead, Maczek gave Zgorzelski’s force-comprising the 10th Dragoons, 24th Lancers and two anti-tank batteries of the western group-the task of capturing Chambois at all costs.

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