Battle of Falaise Pocket

The Battle of Falaise Pocket was a decisive WW2 military engagement of the Allied Normandy Campaign. Waffen-SS elements were involved in the fierce fighting around the town of Falaise. It took place from August 12 to August 21, 1944, in northern France. It was the last phase of the Battle of Normandy, before the Allied armies were able to move eastwards, towards Paris and the Rhine river.

The Battle of Falaise was fought between four German Panzer divisions from the 7th Army, under the command of Günther von Kluge, and the Allied forces under the overall command of Bernard Montgomery. Although the result was an Allied victory, almost 100,000 German troops managed to break through the enemy lines and get out of the encirclement.

Adolf Hitler had ordered Field Marshal Günther von Kluge to counterattack the Americans around Mortain. With only four Panzer divisions he had at his disposal, Kluge launched Operation Lüttich, which ground to a halt, because the German forces were not strong enough to break through the US 1st Army lines. After the counterattack the Germans were left in a highly dangerous position. As a result, on August 8, in order to envelop von Kluge’s forces, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery ordered his armies to encircle the Germans on the Falaise–Chambois area. The American 3rd and 1st Army formed the southern jaw of the pincers, while the Canadian 1st Army and elements of the British 2nd Army made up the northern jaw.

Summary

The Battle of the Falaise Pocket began when the US 3rd Army, under the command of General George Patton, moved up from south in the early hours of August 12. While the British pushed in from the north-west, the Canadian 1st Army began to close the gap. The Germans fought ferociously to keep an escape route open. Despite they were heavily outnumbered by the Allied troops and did not have the advantage of air superiority, the German units managed maintain an escape corridor open.

After tenacious and fierce fighting put up by Waffen-SS elements, such as the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, the Germans began to withdraw on August 17. Having suffered heavy losses, the Allies linked up at Chambois on August 19 and closed the pocket. Germans infantry units who could not escape launched vicious attacks which opened narrow corridors through which more German troops slipped out.

Below, the Falaise Pocket map.

Battle of the Falaise Pocket video