| In
August 1944 the major part of the German 7th Army
and elements of the battered 5th Panzer Army amounting
to almost 19 Divisions were close to being surrounded
by the Allies.
Despite
being aware of the possibilty of closing the ring
around the Germans the Allied commanders hesitated
and thousands of soldiers with their equipment escaped
eastwards through a narrow corridor at Falaise.
Nevertheless,
as the gap closed the Allies combined ground and
air power attacks on the German troops with such
ferocity that thousands of men and animals were
killed, the fields and roads being covered with
destroyed equipment. General Eisenhower described
the battlefield at Falaise as 'one of the greatest
killing grounds of any of the war areas'.
Though
we do not describe the Falaise affair in any of
our books we do offer a small and simple map of
the area showing the locations of the memorials
and museums. The map is 'boxed' within our D-Day
Landings map. |
