The Falaise Gap Battles

Normandy 1944

Simon Forty, Leo Marriott

• Publisher: Casemate
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781612005386
• eBook ISBN: 9781612005393
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

"A great book" on the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy in the series that brings World War II battles to life ( Army Rumour Service).
The denouement of the battle of Normandy, the fighting around Falaise and Chambois in August 1944, and the pursuit of the retreating German armies to the Seine provided the Allies with an immense victory—all made possible by Operation Cobra . . .
As US First Army and British Second Army squeezed the western and northern edges of the German salient, so Third Army rushed headlong eastwards and then north to create the lower of two pincers—the other formed as the Canadian First Army and the Polish 1st Armored Division pushed south of Caen. As could be expected, the Germans did not simply give up: they fought furiously to keep the pincers from closing. When they did, attacks from inside the pocket to break out and outside the pocket to break in led to fierce fighting between Chambois and Argentan. When the dust settled, between 80,000 and 100,000 troops had been trapped by the Allied encirclement. Estimates vary considerably, but it seems safe to say that at least 10,000 of the German forces were killed and around 50,000 became PoWs.
The Past & Present Series reconstructs historical battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views with those of the past together with concise explanatory text. It shows how much infrastructure has remained and how much such as outfits, uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent link between now and then.

CLOSING THE POCKET

THE DENOUEMENT OF THE BATTLE of Normandy, launched on a wing and a prayer on June 6, took place ten weeks later on August 18–21 in a small area between Chambois, Mont-Ormel, and St. Lambert-sur-Dive.

With the Canadian and Polish advance from the north sticking against a tenacious defense, and the so-called “Falaise Pocket” deflating like a burst balloon, it is surprising that the American forces in the south didn’t force their way north. In fact, it was not until August 20 that XV Corps finally took Argentan and advanced towards Chambois to seal the pocket. By then the retreating Germans, squeezed from the west by US First and British Second Army, were fleeing helter-skelter but still in good order, towards the Polish positions on Mont-Ormel, where Polish 1st Armoured fought to their last round.

The reasons why the gap wasn’t closed immediately are well outlined at the start of Chapter 26 in Martin Blumenson’s Breakout and Pursuit: they boil down, as Bradley said, to the fact that he preferred “a solid shoulder at Argentan to a broken neck at Falaise.” Seventy years on, the reasons tend to be discussed in more nationalistic terms, usually with the blame being passed to a general of a different nationality to the writer!

The reality is that the Germans, even in defeat, didn’t allow their retreat to become a rout. They had become masters of this on the Eastern Front and the same would be true in the west. They were helped by the fanaticism of their soldiers and their authoritarian regime (over 4,000 German soldiers were executed in 1944 for desertion and other reasons), and by an understandable desire by the Allies to conserve their troops. In the end, the Allies had beaten an army that was experienced and motivated, and had had four years to prepare its defenses.

Past and present pairs of Falaise, liberated by Canadian troops on August 17, 1944. During its liberation Falaise was flattened, some seventy percent of buildings destroyed and hundreds of inhabitants killed— over 20,000 Normans died during the battles in 1944. They are remembered in Falaise in The Civilians in Wartime Memorial (Mémorial des Civils de la Guerre), a museum that opened in 2016.

One of a series of Past and Present posters around Falaise that bring hom the devastation the town suffered in 1944.

Panther Ausf A of I. Abt Pz Regt 24 attached to 116 Pz Div. It’s on rue Aristide Briand. II./Pz-Regt 33 of 9. Pz Div also defended Argentan.

Argentan was the goal of T...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Introduction
• THE POCKET FORMS
• Operation Cobra
• Third Army Operational
• Operation Bluecoat
• Operation Lüttich
• Operation Totalize
• Third Army Advances
• Operation Tractable
• CLOSING THE POCKET
• The Killing Floor
• THE END
• Canadian 4th Armoured Division
• US 90th Infantry Division
• Polish 1st Armoured Division
• Tournai-sur-Dive
• Cemeteries
• Key to Map Symbols
• Bibliography