Falaise pocket
On 1 August, Lieutenant General George S. Patton was named the commanding officer of the newly recommissioned US Third Army, which included large segments of the force that had broken through the German lines.Early Allied objectives in the wake of the D-Day invasion of German-occupied France included the deep water port of Cherbourg and the area surrounding the town of Caen.[11] The US First Army broke through the German defences near Saint-Lô and by the end of the third day had advanced 15 mi (24 km) south of its start line at several points.[12][13] Avranches was captured on 30 July and within 24 hours the US VIII Corps of the US Third Army crossed the bridge at Pontaubault into Brittany and continued south and west through open country, almost without opposition.[24][25][26] Operation Lüttich had led to the most powerful remaining German units being defeated at the west side of the Cotentin Peninsula by the US First Army, and the Normandy front on the verge of collapse.[37][nb 3] In a telephone conversation on 8 August, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, recommended an American proposal for a shorter envelopment at Argentan.Believing he could always fall back on the original plan if necessary, Montgomery accepted the wishes of Bradley as the man on the spot, and the proposal was adopted.[nb 4] The Third Army advance from the south made good progress on 12 August; Alençon was captured and Kluge was forced to commit troops he had been gathering for a counter-attack.[43][nb 5] With the Americans on the southern flank halted and then engaged with Panzer Group Eberbach, and with the British pressing in from the north-west, the First Canadian Army, which included the Polish 1st Armoured Division, was ordered to close the trap.[53] The 1st Polish Armoured Division, part of the First Canadian Army, was divided into three battlegroups and ordered to make a wide sweep to the south-east to meet American troops at Chambois.[60] An armoured column of the 2nd Panzer Division broke through the Canadians in St. Lambert, took half the village and kept a road open for six hours until nightfall.[61] Having taken Chambois, two of the Polish battlegroups drove north-east and established themselves on part of Hill 262 (Mont Ormel ridge), spending the night of 19 August digging in.[67] Soon after midday, the Canadian Grenadier Guards reached Mont Ormel, and by late afternoon the remainder of the 2nd and 9th SS Panzer Divisions had begun their retreat to the Seine.[70] Approximately 20–50,000 German troops, minus heavy equipment, escaped through the gap and were reorganized and rearmed, in time to slow the Allied advance into Eastern France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.[1] Hitler's involvement had been damaging from the first day, with his insistence on unrealistic counter-offensives, micro-management of generals, and refusal to withdraw when his armies were threatened with annihilation.Montgomery, who was still nominally in charge of all ground forces, now chose to exercise his authority and ordered Patton back to his side of the international boundary line.[80]Some historians have thought that the gap could have been closed earlier; Wilmot wrote that, despite having British divisions in reserve, Montgomery did not reinforce Guy Simonds, and that the Canadian drive on Trun and Chambois was not as "vigorous and venturesome" as the situation demanded.Patton's post-battle claim that the Americans could have prevented the German escape, had Bradley not ordered him to stop at Argentan, was "absurd over-simplification".He speculated that the real reason Bradley halted Patton was not fear of accidental clashes with the British, but knowledge that, with powerful German formations still operational, the Americans lacked the means to defend an early blocking position and would have suffered an "embarrassing and gratuitous setback" at the hands of the retreating Fallschirmjäger and the 2nd and 12th SS-Panzer divisions.[70][89] In the fighting around Hill 262, German losses totalled 2,000 men killed, 5,000 taken prisoner and 55 tanks, 44 guns and 152 other armoured vehicles destroyed.[90] By 22 August 1944, the 12th SS-Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" had lost around 8,000 soldiers,[91] out of its initial strength of 20,540,[92] along with most of its tanks and vehicles, which had been redistributed among several Kampfgruppe in the previous weeks.
A
Cromwell tank
and
Willys MB
'jeep' passing an abandoned German
8.8 cm PaK 43
anti-tank gun during Totalize
The formation of the Falaise pocket, from 8–17 August 1944
[
image reference needed
]
German counter-attacks against Canadian-Polish positions on 20 August 1944
Polish infantry moving towards cover on
Hill 262
, 20 August 1944
Germans surrendering in St. Lambert on 19 August 1944
Normandy CampaignNormandyLiberation of ParisSeine riverUnited StatesUnited KingdomCanadaPolandFranceGermanyBernard MontgomeryOmar BradleyHarry CrerarMiles DempseyCourtney HodgesGeorge S. PattonArthur ConinghamPhilippe LeclercGünther von KlugeWalter ModelPaul HausserHeinrich Eberbach1st Army3rd Army2nd Army2nd Tactical Air Force7th Army5th Panzer ArmyOperation OverlordAtlantic WallBodyguardFortitudeZeppelinTitanicTaxable, Glimmer & Big DrumCombined Bomber OffensivePointblankTransport PlanPostage AbleTarbrushFabiusCaen canal and Orne river bridgesMerville BatteryMallardAmerican SectorAlbanyBostonChicagoDetroitElmiraNormandy landingsPointe du HocGambitPort-en-BessinAmericanOperation ChastityBritishMulberryBrécourt ManorGraignesLa Haye-du-PuitsSaint-LôCarentanHill 30CherbourgBrévilleVillers-BocageLe Mesnil-PatryNormandy massacresArdenne AbbeyDouvresMartletWindsorCharnwoodJupiter2nd OdonAtlanticGoodwoodVerrières RidgeSpringBluecoatTotalizeHill 140LüttichTractableHill 262ChamboisFalaiseSaint-MaloMantes-GassicourtLa RochelleUshantLa CainePierres NoiresAudierne BayJedburghDingsonSamwestCooneyBulbasketHoundsworthLoytonKiplingDragoonWallace & HardyCemeteriesGermanBattle of NormandySecond World WarpocketFalaise, CalvadosArmy Group BFifth Panzer ArmyWestern AlliesFranco-German borderinvasion of NormandyOperation GoodwoodOperation CobraUS Third ArmyOperation Bluecoatpanzer divisionsFirst US Army1st Polish Armoured DivisionGerman-occupied Francedeep water portEnglish Channel