A pocket was formed around Falaises, Calvados, in which the German Army Group B, with the 7th Army and the Fifth Panzer Army were encircled by the Western Allies. The battle resulted in the destruction of most of the German forces west of the Seine, which opened the way to Paris and the Franco-German border for the Allied armies on the Western Front.
About Falaise Pocket in brief
The Battle of the Falaise Pocket was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War. A pocket was formed around Falaises, Calvados, in which the German Army Group B, with the 7th Army and the Fifth Panzer Army were encircled by the Western Allies. The battle resulted in the destruction of most of the German forces west of the Seine, which opened the way to Paris and the Franco-German border for the Allied armies on the Western Front. The Germans were forced in the Allied lines by German counter-attacks, the biggest being a corridor being forced past a position at the mouth of the pocket. Many Germans escaped, but a few days later the Germans were trapped in the pocket, with c 50,000 men trapped inside the Germans, and huge losses in equipment and equipment. The German Army had been expending irreplaceable resources in the attempt to defend the Normandy frontline. Despite lacking the resources to defeat the US breakthrough and simultaneous British and Canadian offensives south of Caumont and Caen, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge was not permitted by Hitler to withdraw but was ordered to conduct a counter-offensive at Mortain. The orderly withdrawal eventually collapsed due to lack of fuel. The First US Army formed the arm of the US Army forming the northern arm, and the British the base of the encirclement. The Allies linked up in Chambois on 17 August and on 19 August and linked up with the Canadians on the 19th and 20th.
By the evening of the 21st August, the pocket had been sealed, with German losses in the area estimated at 50,000 to 60,000. The Americans broke through on 1 August, and with few German reserves behind the front line, the race was on. The US Third Army quickly pushed south and then east, meeting very little German resistance. After some initial resistance, theGerman forces were overwhelmed and the Americans break through. The Allied armies developed a multi-stage operation to break out of Normandy. It started with a British and. Canadian attack along the eastern battle line around Caen in Operation Goodwood on 18 July. Then, on 25 July thousands of American bombers carpet bombed a 6,000-metre hole on the western end of theGerman lines around Saint-Lô in Operation Cobra, allowing the Americans to push forces through this gap in the German lines. On 8 August, General Bernard Montgomery, the Allied ground forces commander ordered the Allied forces to converge on the First Chisambois area. On the 17th and 18th, the Allies began to envelop the southern arm of Army Group. B, forming the First Army of the U.S. Army, and began to withdraw to the north of the French Riviera. In the early hours of the morning of the 18th August, Allied forces began to encircle the Germans in the Chisabois area, and on the 20th and 21st, the Germans began to retreat.
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This page is based on the article Falaise Pocket published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
