Liberation of Dol-de-Bretagne

[hkalt@kaltcommunications.]

Hello, I come to you from the U.S. [California specifically] to introduce myself and ask about the present state of this site. I see many of the posts are from 10 or more years ago but i became aware of the site only recently.

My interest is primarily in the liberation of Dol-de-Bretagne. A good friend of mine, now departed, was a member of the 83rd Infantry Division and, in fact, secretly entered Dol on the night of August 3-4, 1944 with the assignment of convincing the German commander to withdraw so that St. Samson cathedral would not be bombed. His name was John O'Donnell and I was partly responsible for calling attention to this fact to the present day citizens of Dol. This all happened in 2007-09.

The story is now well known in Dol but the facts sometimes get twisted a bit. I would like to continue to share my knowledge and learn more from those of you on this board. Unfortunately, I do not speak French but rough translations are available through the internet.

I look forward to hearing back from some of you.
Howard Kalt

[Jean_118eRI]

Hello Howard,

Welcome on the forum. You are night, many posts are old as the forum has been abandonned few years ago (that's my opinion) for unknown reasons ( users died, or quit...). That's really shit as it was a good forum about Brittany. For sure the forum is not dead, some guys are coming like visitors or users. The best explanation will come from an administrator for sure.

Not much is written about Dol in 1944, there are 2 books talking about the free of Dol:
-Les fleurs de la Liberté, From Patrick Amiot
- La ruée vers St-Malo, from docteur Aubry (the best for sure but very old)

- a link about Dol in august 1944 (French):

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For sure litterature is missing about the actions of the 83th ID from Avranches to E-mail.
Could you tell more about Mister O'Donnell ? Nuit? Grade? Post Dol actions ?

Best regards

[Jean_118eRI]

Another book I forget (interesting as there are many pics from civilians or NARA):

L'été des moissons rouges, from Denis Lafond

Please read "right" instead of "night" in my previous message

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