Falaise pocket

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Falaise pocket Part of World War II, Battle of Normandy A map showing the course of the battle Date August 12 – August 21, 1944 Location Normandy, France Result Allied victory Belligerents  Canada  Free French Polish forces  United Kingdom  United States  Germany Commanders Bernard Montgomery Omar Bradley Harry Crerar Miles Dempsey George Patton Günther von Kluge Walter Model Strength 10 Armd Divs + Inf. Divs total 350,000 men ~10 Pz. Divs + Inf. Divs total 150,000 men Casualties and losses Canadian: ~5,500 casualties Polish: 1,441 casualties Total casualties unavailable ~10,000 killed, Thousands wounded, 40,000-50,000 captured

v • d • e Battle of Normandy Neptune – Tonga – American Airborne Landings – Sword – Juno – Gold – Omaha – Utah – Pointe du Hoc – Brécourt Manor – La Caine – Perch – Carentan – Villers-Bocage – Cherbourg – Epsom – Charnwood – Jupiter – Goodwood – Atlantic – Verriéres Ridge – Spring – Cobra – Bluecoat – Totalise – Lüttich – Tractable – Falaise – Brest – Paris

During August 1944, the Falaise pocket ^[1] was the area between the four towns of Trun, Argentan, Vimoutiers and Chambois near Falaise in France, in which Allied forces tried to encircle and destroy the German Seventh Army and Fifth Panzer Army as part of the larger Battle of Normandy, during World War II.

[edit] Background

While Allied troops made slow progress in Normandy through most of June and July, the US 12th Army Group under General Omar Bradley started to make rapid progress at the beginning of August, thanks to the success of Operation Cobra. By August 4 the German front facing the 12th Army Group had largely collapsed. A small but fierce German counter-offensive (Operation Lüttich) was launched on August 7 at Mortain. This was a last-ditch attempt at halting the Allied breakthrough by cutting off General George Patton's Third Army. With the aid of air support and advance warning thanks to ULTRA, the Germans had been repelled by the evening, and Bradley had retaken Mortain.^[2]

The Germans' Mortain counterattack was an unwise move because it shifted the weight of their forces westward at the very time when they needed to retreat eastward. In the process the Germans had been weakened, and Allied commanders Bradley and Bernard Montgomery moved to exploit the situation with a plan to encircle the Germans.

The initial plan was to cut off the Germans by sending the First Canadian Army, under Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar, south through Falaise^[2]to meet elements of the American Third Army, which was attacking northwards to Argentan. Realising that the Germans might escape, Montgomery later modified the plan to close the gap between Trun and Chambois 11 miles (18 km) further to the east.

[edit] Battle

[edit] South

Headed by General Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division, which had taken Le Mans on August 9, the U.S. XV Corps of Patton's Third Army received orders on August 10 to move rapidly north. On August 12 it entered Alençon, then moved on to Ecouché and finally Argentan on August 14, 14 miles (22 km) south of Falaise, where they were ordered to halt by Bradley since he needed Montgomery's permission to cross army boundary lines (a decision supported by Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower) and for fear of running into the Canadians to the north—the rapid changes in troop locations were causing confusion in the Allied communication lines. The halt in the northward advance is thought to have enabled several thousand German troops to escape.

Montgomery modified the northern boundary on August 15 after Bradley had waited for a crucial 24 hrs, enabling the Americans to advance further north, and on August 19 the 90th Infantry Division took Chambois, 10 km north east of Argentan, where they met up with the Canadians who were heading south towards the town.

Meanwhile the main focus of the U.S. attack turned to the east, and by August 20 Patton's Third Army had crossed the river Seine at Mantes, with Leclerc's tanks reaching the centre of Paris on August 24.

[edit] North

To the north, Montgomery launched a new offensive to the south of Caen at the same time. In its first operation Canadian First Army launched Operation Totalize on August 9. After an initial breakthrough, progress slowed. Although under air attack by day, the German forces (which included the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend) ^[2] were still able to cause serious damage. The Germans also put up fierce resistance against the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division in the woods north of Falaise on August 16. Falaise was conquered by August 17.^[2]

The Canadian 4th Armoured Division occupied Trun on August 18. On August 19 they took the German held village of Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives and joined up with the Americans at Chambois, digging in on a line from Falaise through Trun to Chambois and fighting hard against the fleeing Germans. The South Alberta Regiment, predecessors to today's South Alberta Light Horse along with elements of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Princess Louise's) and the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, fought a vicious battle at Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives. This small force, numbering fewer than 200 Canadians, killed, captured and wounded around 3,000 Germans during the battle. Major David Currie of the South Alberta Regiment won the Victoria Cross for his leadership during the battle.

Also on August 18, General Stanisław Maczek's 1st Polish Armoured Division took up position with 87 Sherman tanks on the wooded "Hill 262" (known as Mont-Ormel to the French, The Mace to the Poles) to the east of the Canadians, to prevent any counter-offensive from the east seeking to rescue the trapped Germans. From the hill they also had a commanding position overlooking the Chambois to Vimoutiers road (by now the last road out of the pocket) and proceeded to attack the fleeing Germans. In response, the isolated Poles were repeatedly and ferociously attacked, especially on August 20 when the II SS Panzer Corps, which had escaped the pocket, attacked and broke through back into the pocket from Vimoutiers. The Poles had lost 325 dead, with 1,002 wounded and 114 missing when they were reinforced by the 22nd Armoured Regiment (The Canadian Grenadier Guards) in the early morning of August 21. The Germans lost around 2,000 dead, with 5,000 taken prisoner, and 359 vehicles destroyed.

[edit] Inside the pocket

Under the combined pressure of the Americans and French to the south, the British to the west, and the Canadians and Poles to the north, by August 10 the Germans were aware of the danger of encirclement, although Hitler was demanding another counter-attack on Avranches rather than a deliberate withdrawal.

On August 15, Hitler replaced Field Marshal Günther von Kluge with Walther Model. Kluge was absent from his headquarters for most of that day. Hitler, already suspicious of von Kluge after his implication by forced confessions from members of the July Plot, later alleged that von Kluge had attempted to surrender his armies to the Allies but was prevented because Allied plenipotentiaries failed to make contact.^[2] Kluge's version of events (supported by other German officers) was that his car was knocked out by Allied fighter-bombers and he had then been pinned down until nightfall by Allied artillery fire. No Allied account makes any mention of an offer of surrender or of any contact with von Kluge. (Von Kluge committed suicide a few days later.)

The following day, with the remaining 150,000 troops of the German Seventh Army and Fifth Panzer Army almost encircled, Hitler finally ordered a general withdrawal of troops towards the Seine River. On the ground, the retreat had effectively been underway since August 14 (planned by Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff), in an attempt to save what remained of the German armored divisions. The German infantry, spread out over the bocage without support, became increasingly disordered as the troops tried to reach the narrow Falaise Gap and safety.

For most of the Normandy campaign, Allied fighter-bombers of the RAF Second Tactical Air Force and USAAF Ninth Air Force had controlled the skies over the battlefield, but the Germans had suffered few actual casualties since they occupied dispersed and camouflaged defensive positions and moved at night only. From the Mortain counter-offensive on August 7, they had been compelled to move by daylight, and losses had increased. Now they were compressed into a narrow pocket and attempting to flee by day, and the Allied fighter-bombers and artillery caused havoc. Eventually, the pall of smoke from burning vehicles prevented the Allied aircraft from finding further targets. In a single attack by the Royal Air Force aircraft, the German army lost 175 tanks and hundreds of men.

The German retreat turned into a desperate flight along what became known to the Germans as "the death road" (Todesgang) between the villages of Chambois, Saint Lambert, Trun and Tournai-sur-Dives. Late on August 21, after French priest Abbé Launay pleaded with the German field commander, the remaining German troops in the pocket were ordered to surrender.

[edit] Aftermath

Destroyed vehicles and dead Germans lie on a road near Chambois, their retreating convoy was destroyed by allied air attack and artillery

Although perhaps 100,000 German troops succeeded in escaping the Allies because of the delay in closing the gap (many of them wounded), they left behind 40,000-50,000 prisoners, over 10,000 dead, and the road was practically impassable because of the destroyed vehicles (including 730 tanks and tank destroyers out of an original force of 880). None of the Panzer divisions in Normandy escaped with more than 15 tanks. Out of the 56 infantry divisions that had fought west of the Seine, 18 were utterly destroyed. Among those not captured were one army commander, four corps commanders and 14 division commanders. The German forces lost about 10,000 guns and vehicles. Only the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and Panzerlehrdivision had more than 15 combat-ready tanks by August 22.

The Canadians also suffered heavy losses, with some 5,500 dead, wounded, and missing (including 1,470 killed). Polish forces lost 1,441 men, including 325 killed and 114 missing.

The failure to capture greater numbers of German troops was questioned by some commanders and postwar writers. The formation and reduction of the pocket was a great Allied success; there was however a sense, even as the pocket closed, that the prisoner haul could have been more. This gave the basis for allegations that perhaps a number of German prisoners of war were executed by the Polish troops in revenge for the brutal suppression of the Warsaw Uprising.

The U.S. forces pushing northward were halted by an inter-Army boundary line. Bradley did not request that the boundary be moved (not an uncommon procedure) nor did Montgomery suggest it. Although there was a legitimate need to avoid friendly-fire incidents, and fast moving units might have fallen victim to friendly fire if link-ups were not carefully coordinated, a boundary change would not necessarily have led to fratricide. Bradley also stated that he preferred a strong force able to hold in place rather than a weak one, over-extended in an attempt to seal the pocket. However, his eastward attack by XV Corps even before the pocket was closed belies this position.

With strong personalities on both sides of the question the controversy was quite heated, especially postwar as competing memoirs were published.

[edit] Notes

John Keegan, "The Second World War" (Info on casualties of tanks.)

[edit] External links

• Closing of the Falaise Pocket at memorial-montormel.org
• Canadians in the Falaise Gap
• The Battle of Hill 195
• The Battle at St. Lambert-Sur-dives
• Account of the Polish battle on hill 262
• Captain Kazimierz DUDA - 1st Polish Armoured Division - C.K.M.
• Bridge, Arthur (Summer 2000). "In the Eye of the Storm". Canadian Military History Volume 9 (no. 3): pp.61-68.  First hand account by a Canadian soldier.

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