In August 1944,
in between the towns of Falaise, Argentan and Chambois,
the Allies encircled the Germans in what's known
as the Falaise Pocket.
Today, we'll learn about this battle,
which ended the operations in Normandy,
by visiting the Montormel Memorial.
By the end of July 1944,
two months after the landing,
the Allies couldn't advance the front in Normandy.
Then, the Americans came up with the successful Operation Cobra,
that took the fight to Brittany.
As a desperate attempt to stop this advance,
on August 7th, the German Army launched
a counterattack towards the Mortain Sector
that was a total failure.
With this new situation, the Allies had the opportunity
to encircle the enemy by the rear on the south
and to advance on them on the north,
since in their failed counterattack
the Germans had eased the pressure on the Caen Sector.
On August 12th,
when the Americans, with the French 2nd Armored Division at the front,
liberated Alençon and then arrived at the gates of Argentan,
is considered the date in which the encirclement began,
known in military terms as a pocket.
In its interior, the German 7th Army and a Panzer Army were trapped.
About 150 000 soldiers total.
From the north, the Canadian 1st Army reduced
the size of the pocket to an area of about 18 X 9 mi
advancing towards Falaise, which would be liberated in August 17th.
To learn more about the final battle in Normandy,
we're meeting Stéphane, Director of the Montormel Memorial,
strategically situated on top of Hill 262.
- Hello Stéphane. - Hello, Oscar.
It's nice to be in this high area,
to better understand the Falaise Pocket.
It was here, that 77 days after the landing,
the Battle of Normandy ended
due to the encirclement of two German armies present in the battle.
What's interesting is
that all the Allies that fought in Normandy
are present:
the Americans, the French from the 2nd Armored Division,
the British, the Canadians,
and more astounding or "exotic", the Polish on top of this hill,
who made formed the cork that'd prevent the Germans
from escaping the pocket.
Inside the pocket, there were all kinds of German units:
the Wehrmacht, the SS, the paratroopers.
including high officials like Paul Hausser
commander of the 7th Army, who was also trapped
and had to escape by foot.
All of the German army present in Normandy was represented.
To better understand the battle, I propose a visit to the Memorial.
Shall we?
The Battle of Normandy wasn't reduced to the Americans, British, and Canadians.
There were also Poles.
They landed on August 1st, and fought between Caen and Falaise.
They played a major role in the Falaise-Chambois Pocket.
In this showcase, we feature Polish material from the course of the war.
We're in contact with the Warsaw Museum.
They're interested in featuring the Polish presence in the war
an all fronts.
The texts in the museum are not only in French, English, and German,
but also in Polish.
We get many visitors from Poland.
More each time.
The visit of the Polish President in 2014 stands out.
That's why the descriptions, besides being in French, English, and German,
are also in Polish.
You can tell that Stéphane is passionate about this battle.
By touring the museum him, the pieces come to life.
and we can better understand the development of the Falaise Pocket.
By the way, the name of this battle
is owed to British historiography and it's not completely accurate.
As we'll see in today's episode,
the fights didn't take place around the city of Falaise.
That's why the battle has been increasingly referred to
as the Falaise-Chambois Pocket.
Stéphane is taking us to the latter town
to begin our historic tour.
The Falaise Pocket was closed here in Chambois, right?
That's right. I was here.
On the 19th at 19h to be exact.
It was when the Anglo-Canadian, with the Poles, from the north
contacted the troops on the south
formed by the Americans and the French of the 2nd Division.
This encounter happened on August 19th,
a few yards from here.
A young American officer named Waters,
commander of the G Company from the 90th Division's 395th Regiment,
and on the Polish side, Mayor Zgorzelski.
Waters narrated this encounter.
He explained that he was young, only 24 years old, and scared.
In the middle of the road, he saw a tall man in British uniform.
That's how the Poles dressed.
He realized that he had just reached the Poles.
And said, "with the honor of the US on my shoulders."
"I find courage, I come close despite the danger, and extend my hand."
The pocket was closed.
This place is very important.
One of the most well-known.
Due to a photo taken on the 19th at noon.
What's interesting, besides the place barely changing,
is the capture of German Captain Rauch.
Well, it's believed that that was his name.
But his identity isn't clear.
He symbolizes the German Army's defeat,
with the capture of this officer with his boots and cap.
We can also see the Canadian officer in charge,
Major Currie.
He was decorated with the Victoria Cross.
Very important for the Canadians.
When the Canadians got here, they captured the bridge
next to a church.
The Germans didn't counterattack until the night of the 19th/20th.
They made the Canadians fall back over the hill.
There were heavy combats here for two days.
After the failed German counterattack on the west
Marshal Von Kluge, commander of the German forces in the North of France
had realized the danger of being trapped in the pocket,
so he asked for authorization from Hitler himself
to retreat his troops to the east.
But his request led to his dismissal,
also motivated by his alleged involvement
in the failed attempt against the Führer on July 20th.
When his successor, Marshal Model, asked for the same authorization
five days later, Hitler agreed.
So it began, for the German troops,
a retreat that'd become an escape against the clock.
To be able to escape before the pocket closed definitely.
The Moissy ford symbolizes the German defeat.
The German Army, desperate to cross the Dives River
used this ford.
It seems relatively easy,
but you must imagine the constant bombing
and the traffic jams.
100 000 soldiers tried to crossed the Dives River.
There were few ways.
They rushed here, under artillery fire and crossed the ford.
On the water, there were broken vehicles
as others crossed as fast as possible.
A witness told me that if soldiers crossed by foot
the vehicles didn't stop.
The infantry had no choice.
They had to go through this bridge.
It was the only way to cross the river
without risking being ran over.
But the problem was that on each artillery pause
a hundred soldiers would rush to the bridge.
To cross quickly, waiting for an artillery pause
the Germans didn't hesitate to start knife fights.
The same witness, who crossed on a Panther tank,
remembers seeing soldiers fighting with bayonets
to be the first to cross.
It must've been hell.
One of the battle's controversies
was related to General Omar Bradley,
commander of all the American land forces,
when he stopped the fast advance of his troops
as to avoid entering the sector assigned to the British
and avoid friendly fire.
And also to avoid giving up their position.
Generals, like Patton, criticized such restraint at the time.
There are even those that said
that the delay in closing the pocket
allowed the escape of a great number of German soldiers,
who desperately kept fighting to open a way to the east,
to cross the Dives River.
This bridge was the second escape route.
This double bridge was another route, in addition to the ford.
On the other side there's another bridge.
But this one could withstand the weight of the Panthers, about 45 t.
Though it's hard to believe, the bridge wasn't destroyed.
It's the one that the Germans used to cross.
This area also sustained heavy bombings.
What's surprising is, that in spite of it,
the church still stands, and these houses too.
that existed at that time.
When shooting at moving troops,
the Allies used special munitions:
shells that explode on the air
releasing the shrapnel.
They'd hit the walls, broke roofs and windows,
but didn't destroy the houses.
Those that were, were destroyed by the fire due
to contact with vehicles on fire.
We have a photo of that time taken in this same spot!
We can see two Panther tanks turned over the ditch.
There was a third one on the other side.
Those tanks tried to cross.
We don't know how they were destroyed.
Or what unit they belonged to:
maybe the 2nd Panzer Division or the Leibstandarte.
They are an example of the defeat,
along with the cars, horses...
The losses were huge.
So you can get an idea,
when they redid the road two years ago,
they found a German paratrooper helmet.
There's still lots of buried material.
We're at "The Corridor of Death".
It wasn't just a road.
It's a route that consisted of three roads.
The Germans took over the three.
A German veteran of the famous corridor told me
that the vehicles drove on two or three lanes.
They stopped for long periods of time.
When horses died, when a vehicle was destroyed,
or broke down,
they had to clear the road.
If they were heavy, they'd go up the slope through the fields
to pass the obstacle.
He told me that to travel the corridor's 4 mi,
from the river to the foot of the hill,
they took 12 hours.
That's crazy.
And all this under constant bombing.
It was very hard.
That's why they called it "The Corridor of Death".
It left it's mark.
And of those 4 mi, you brought us to this one
because there are war remains.
Why are we here?
The locals say that the tanks sometimes
would go up the slope to go around the vehicles.
A tank, with its 45 t, would go over the slope.
Here we can see how the bushes were moved.
We're at the bocage.
Usually, bushes are on the edge of the road.
Here, they were separated.
The crossing of German vehicles, especially tanks,
transformed the landscape.
The Corridor of Death
is one of the most powerful and iconic images
from the Battle of Normandy.
Traveling on the same path,
it's impressive to imagine that for a few days
these calm roads witnessed so much destruction.
The only possible exit for the Germans trapped in the pocket
was on the east end, the area of Mont Ormel,
where we started the episode today.
It was British Field Marshal Montgomery,
commander of all the Allied land forces in Normandy,
who compared the Falaise Pocket to a bottle,
the cork being the Polish 1st Armored Division,
that had to endure the push of thousands of Germans
trying to open escape routes.
We're at the center of the Polish apparatus.
If we imagine the pocket as a huge bottle,
the Poles are the cork.
The cork's at Hill 262 N.
The Germans knew that the Poles were covering the exit,
and mounted several counterattacks from inside the pocket,
especially Meindl's paratroopers.
But they also attacked from the outside.
The "Das Reich" Division was in charge of attacking the Hill.
Despite everything, the Poles endured.
But it was tough.
They had no other choice but to reduce their line of defense
regrouping at the Hill's top.
The Germans had the chance to escape.
Out of the 100 000 encircled Germans,
it's been estimated that about 50 000 escaped
from both sides of the hill.
The Poles ran out of ammo.
I asked a veteran if they could see the Germans passing by.
"Yes, but with no weapons, what could we do?"
"Throw rocks?"
With their attacks, the Germans managed
to force the Poles to retreat.
But the mainly avoided the bombing of the exit
due to the risk of friendly fire.
So they escaped from the artillery.
On the morning of August 21st,
the Canadians joined the Poles in the attack,
at this height, around noon.
From that moment on,
not only was the pocket closed again,
but the also brought ammo.
The Poles could now shoot when they saw the Germans go by.
That's when the battle ended.
The pocket was firmly closed.
Practically, no German soldier could escape.
The end of the battle was Dantesque sight.
There were 10 000 German bodies.
What's more astounding,
is that the German Army was horse drawn.
They used many horses.
About 10 000 also died.
The sanitary situation was horrendous.
Between the soldiers and the horses' corpses, and even cows,
the stench could be detected from 6 mi away.
Swarms of flies literally covered the field.
Kids had to be sprayed to protect them.
When eating, they had to cover themselves to avoid the flies.
Finally, the British engineers arrived with bulldozers and opened pits,
where they buried the bodies of both, men and horses
to get rid of them.
Besides the bodies,
it was shocking to see all the abandoned material.
The Germans left behind tanks,
vehicles, guns...
by the dozen, even hundreds.
The French Army took everything that was reusable.
Tanks and guns.
The scraps were sold to scrap dealers all over the state.
It took almost 20 years to clear the field.
The last scraps over the field,
in Trun,
the famous Morat Field,
were taken to Germany during 2002 and 2003.
Some Germans took about 300 tons,
including 70% of a Tiger tank.
It's incredible.
The battle ended on August 21st, at noon.
The German losses were high:
10 000 deaths, 40 000 prisoners,
and about 50 000 escaped.
The German Army wasn't completely destroyed.
But was left in disarray.
The battle was very important.
It would speed up the war.
It took the Allies 77 days to get here.
On August 25th, four days after, Paris was liberated.
Brussels followed, on Sept. 3rd.
The German front completely crumbled.
The Allies won the Battle of France,
and the Battle of Germany began.
We don't want to be negative, but it's a shame
that many visitors settle on visiting the coast
and the on D-Day, and don't go beyond.
It's worth it to go further inland,
and go to museums such as the Montormel Memorial
to better understand the key battles of the war.
Thanks for coming.
We thank you for the existence of museum like this one.
Well, until next time!
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