As weather permitted, Allied aircraft struck at German vehicles along the road, forcing them into fields where many became bogged down. German troops and vehicles assembling in the Gouffern woods came under fire from the 90th Division’s 105mm and 155mm artillery, which was being directed personally by its artillery commander, Brig. Gen. John Devine.

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Throughout August 20, Company E of the 359th fought off attacks by German troops, tanks and a battery of towed 20mm cannons, which were silenced by the company’s mortars. Sergeant John D. Hawk was manning a light machine gun when a German shell knocked out his weapon and wounded him in the right thigh. Hawk secured a bazooka and with another soldier helped drive the enemy tanks back into the woods. During a lull in the fighting, he reorganized two machine-gun squads and directed his platoon to assemble parts from two damaged machine guns into one functional weapon. When a subsequent German armored assault drove Hawk’s troops back from their position, the 2nd Battalion managed to get two M-10 tank destroyers through Chambois to engage the enemy, but the terrain prevented them from getting a clear shot at the panzers. Ignoring his painful wound, Hawk climbed to an exposed position on a knoll to direct their fire; then, when he discovered that nobody could hear him above the din of battle, he ran through a hail of enemy gunfire to the nearest M-10 and told its crew to correct the range. The tank destroyers knocked out two German tanks and drove off a third, along with its accompanying infantry. Hawk then directed the M-10s’ fire into the nearby woods until the Germans-about 500 in number-emerged to surrender. On July 13, 1945, Sergeant Hawk was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage, initiative and ingenuity at Chambois.

On the other side of the town, the Poles observed German armor trying to bypass their right flank, trading occasional long-range shots with their tanks but avoiding any head-on confrontations. The columns were heading toward Hill 262 on Mont Ormel, between Frenée and Coudehard.

Early in the morning of the 21st, aircraft dropped some tank ammunition to the Poles, but much of it missed the target. In addition, a Polish supply column ran into some retreating Germans and was captured. The Polish 1st Armored Division’s shortages persisted until the afternoon, when ample amounts of food, gasoline, medical supplies and tank ammunition finally came from the Americans. Early the next morning, the British 11th Armored Division got machine-gun and mortar ammunition to the Poles, but by that time the fight for Chambois was over.

The battle had cost the Polish 1st Armored Division 1,290 troops killed, 3,820 wounded and 22 missing in action. Although anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 Germans had managed to escape across their remaining crossing at St. Lambert before the Falaise salient closed completely on August 21, 10,000 had been killed and 50,000 taken prisoner. In addition, nearly all of their tanks and artillery pieces had been left behind. On the 20th anniversary of Falaise, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower commented, ‘No other battlefield presented such a horrible sight of death, hell and total destruction.’

The German army in France never fully recovered from the losses it suffered at Falaise. And now, too, the road to Paris lay open to the Allies. For Maczek and the men of his 1st Polish Armored Division, the battles of Chambois and Hill 262 represented their greatest victory in the West-and long-overdue revenge against the Germans. After the battle, General Crerar sent the following telegram to Maczek: ‘First Canadian Army is very proud because of the fact that Polish Armored Division is a part of us. If in the future we all continue to fight as at the present time, the mutual celebration of final victory should not be much delayed.’ General Simonds, who delivered the message, added that ‘The Battle of Chambois decided the fate of the war in Normandy as well as that of the entire French Republic.’

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