The battle

• History
• Units
• Highlights

Launched on June 6^th, 1944 with operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe marked the return of Allied armies in north-western Europe after four years of Nazi domination.

After the seizure of a vast of bridgehead and the capture of Cherbourg as of the end of June, progression of allied forces slowed down during first weeks of July in front of determined enemy opposition, Germans still firmly holding the frontline, and often benefiting from technical superiority on the tactical level.

Operations Epsom, Charnwood, and Goodwood in British sector, depressing and costly “hedgerow war” in the American sector having failed to break the German front, a new impetus was to be insufflated to the allied effort to reach a decisive victory…

In the Introduction, discover through four distinct operations how the Allies succeeded in encircling German defenses between Argentan and Falaise.

• Cobra - the American breakthrough
• Bluecoat - British progression
• Luttich: the counter-offensive of the last chance
• Totalize - Tractable: Canadians on the road to Falaise

The pocket explains the decisive confrontation. Series of charts allow you to follow on daily basis the evolution of the frontline and the way in which the 7^th German Army was destroyed.

• August 16^th – 18^th, the encirclement
• August 19^th, 1944: the closing of the pocket
  
• August 20^th: the counter-attack of 2^nd SS-PanzerKorps
  
• August 21^st: the end of German 7^th Army

The epilogue features the impact of the fighting in the Falaise pocket on the outcome of future allied operations against Third Reich: ten days after the capitulation of last German troops in the Dives valley, Allies were in Brussels

• The race to the Seine
  
• The ride of Patton
  
• An assesment of the battle in Normandy

 

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