On the afternoon of Aug. 18,1944, the 4th Canadian Armoured Division redeployed its forces in response to a directive from the corps commander to prevent the enemy from escaping the Falaise Pocket. The division was to establish blocking positions along the River Dives between the villages of Trun and Chambois. The Polish Armd. Div. was to secure Chambois, linking up with the American 90th Infantry Div. It is not clear why Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds thought that the 10th Canadian Inf. Brigade, less the Algonquin Regiment, was a sufficient force to accomplish this task, but as corps commander he was preoccupied with the next phase of operations: the pursuit to the River Seine. Simonds ordered Major-General George Kitching to deploy the 4th Armd. Bde., with three of the division's four armoured regiments and two infantry battalions, north of Trun, where they would begin the advance north. This decision forced Brigadier-General Jim Jefferson to try and close a six-kilometre gap with the tanks of the South Alberta Regiment (SAR) and the rifle companies of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, and the Lincoln and Weiland Regt. The Lines were committed to holding Trun and the nearby village of Magny, where a bridge crossed the River Dives. Jefferson ordered the SARs and Argylls to advance towards Chambois, gaining control of the village of St. Lambert-sur-Dives, where a second bridge was located.
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