Falaise Pocket

Falaise Pocket
Part of Operation Overlord, Battle of Normandy
Map showing the course of the battle from 8–17 August 1944
Date 12–21 August 1944 Location Normandy, France 48°53′34″N 0°11′31″W / 48.89278°N 0.19194°W / 48.89278; -0.19194Coordinates: 48°53′34″N 0°11′31″W / 48.89278°N 0.19194°W / 48.89278; -0.19194 Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom  Canada Poland  Free France	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Bernard Montgomery Omar Bradley Harry Crerar Miles Dempsey Courtney Hodges George Patton	Günther von Kluge Walter Model Paul Hausser Heinrich Eberbach
Strength
up to 17 divisions	14–15 divisions
Casualties and losses
United States: Unknown Great Britain: Unknown Free French: Unknown Canada: 5,679 casualties Poland: c. 5,150 casualties in total of which 2,300 for the 1st. Armoured Division.	c. 60,000: c. 10,000 killed c. 50,000 captured 500 tanks/assault guns

c. 60,000:

The Falaise Pocket or Battle of the Falaise Pocket (12–21 August 1944) was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War. A pocket was formed around Falaise, Calvados, in which the German Army Group B, with the 7th Army and the Fifth Panzer Army (formerly Panzergruppe West) were encircled by the Western Allies. The battle is also referred to as the Battle of the Falaise Gap, after the corridor which the Germans sought to maintain to allow their escape and is sometimes referred to as the Chambois Pocket, the Falaise-Chambois Pocket, the Argentan–Falaise Pocket or the Trun–Chambois Gap. The battle resulted in the destruction of most of Army Group B west of the Seine river, which opened the way to Paris and the German border for the Allied armies.

Following Operation Cobra, the American breakout from the Normandy beachhead, rapid advances were made to the south and south-east by the Third U.S. Army under the command of General George Patton. Despite lacking the resources to defeat the U.S. breakthrough and simultaneous British and Canadian offensives south of Caumont and Caen, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, the commander of Army Group B, was not permitted by Adolf Hitler to withdraw but was ordered to conduct a counter-offensive at Mortain against the U.S. breakthrough. Four depleted panzer divisions were not enough to defeat the First U.S. Army. Operation Lüttich was a disaster, which drove the Germans deeper into the Allied envelopment.

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