Falaise gap.

[fordprefect]

Planning a visit to Falaise area this August, anyone got any ideas about areas / sites worth a visit?

[Paul Reed]

Have a look at the following on my WW2 website:

http://battlefieldsww2.50megs.com/no...ttlefields.htm

[CROONAERT]

Originally posted by fordprefect@Jul 23 2004, 05:05 AM
Planning a visit to Falaise area this August, anyone got any ideas about areas / sites worth a visit?

All I'll say is forget the castle! Modernism isn't my scene!!!

There's a slightly below average museum nearby and one or two things if you look for them (I won't say where, as I think that the "joy of discovery" makes these places even better - get a decent history and you'll see what I mean!!! )

B.

(P.S. it's definately worth putting a little time and study into the area)

[Marco]

The museum 'June 1944' at Falaise isn't bad. My no 1 reason to visit was the Tiger tank at Vimoutiers. My photo collection missed a Tiger (not the King Tiger) for a long time. Went to Bovington to find it in pieces being restored, went to a German museum and found they had temp. exchanged it for something else.... :angry:

Although I now have the Vomoutiers photos, the story continues: went to the French Tank Museum at Saumur last year to find they had temp. exchanged theirs with something from a German museum! This was however a bit leveled by finding unexpectedly a Tiger while visiting an airshow at Duxford.

Regards,

Marco

[Joek]

The region of Falaise is indeed a interesting place. St. Lambert is very interesting if you know what to look for. This is the village where the fleeing 5th and 7th German Army had to pass by a narrow street across a little stone bridge (which still exists).

Wander through the fields, along the little river, over the muddy tracks between the bocages, and keep your eyes open for little details.

When I was walking there once, some 10 years ago, on the site of the road in a field,a farmer stopped and asked me what i was looking for. I told him about my interests in the history of the Falaise Pocket (in schooltime French). He took me to his house, and he went into some sort of barn, actually a large stone farmbuilding.

After a while he came back with a 57mm grenade and german machinegun belt,
still shining from the oil (which he recently found in a watertight ammunitioncanister in the river next to his house!). He told me his brother has found lots and lots of stuff there (see the magazine Then and Now, Falaise Pocket, a musthave if you plan to visit the area!)

Check ot my site for some pictures: Falaise Pocket

Have fun,

Joek

[sapper]

Having been at the back of the Falaise pocket pushing them towards the neck of the bag, I know a lot about the carnage, but sadly, we never saw name places,,just the dead and the utter devastation.
Sapper

[Kieran Bridge]

There's an article by my dad, who was at St. Lambert, posted at The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (P.L.), under the title "Falaise". He doesn't say so in the article, but has told me that at the end of the battle, the ground was covered in German dead for over a hundred yards. I think the south edge of St. Lambert is the site Dwight Eisenhower was describing in his famous description of being able to walk for hundreds of yards stepping on nothing but dead and decaying flesh.

One of my father's friends sent him a photo of the village taken in 2006, and the field in question was covered in beautiful spring flowers. It's hard to imagine such carnage in what is now a peaceful, picturesque village.

KB

[Kieran Bridge]

Hi everyone,

The DVD that was released in 2006, "Death & Destruction in the Falaise Gap" includes at the end some newsreel footage and the most complete version I have seen of Sgt. Stollery's film taken at St. Lambert on August 19, 1944. The original film was destroyed in a fire at the Canadian archives in 1966, but a copy must have been made for use in newsreels. The narration is by an American. Here are some still frames from it.

Hauptmann Rauch’s sidecar approaches. Major Currie is behind a jeep, and you can see the top of his helmet:



Major Currie emerges from behind a jeep, holding his pistol:



Rauch surrenders in the face of a Bren gun. His right hand is in the air, and in his left hand he is holding a map case:



Rauch walks toward the Canadians, holding his map case:




Sgt. Mitchell confiscates the map case and starts removing Rauch’s sidearm belt:



What is the marking on the helmet of the soldier on the right? Is it Polish?

Kieran

[Owen]

Great pictures, Kieran.
Happy New Year by the way.
As for helmet, he's either a ASH Can Despatch Rider or one of the South Albertas as armoured troops wore such a helmet.

[cash_13]

The polish lost a lot of men in that battle which never seems to get mention much. While we were on holiday in 2007 we visited a fantastic museum made from the hill262 command bunker

Hill 262 in Normandy also known as The Mace because the ridge on this hill resembled a caveman's mace with two bulbous heads) and Mount Ormel, was a vital command post. It has an excellent view on the area around Chambois and Vimoutiers.
It was held by the Germans throughout the war until it was captured by the Polish 1st Armoured Division. The battle for Hill 262 is an action normally ignored in the West, but vital to the Allied breakout.

For two days, the Polish Armoured Division defended the area against continuous assaults launched by overwhelming enemy forces (mostly remnants of the German 7th Army), taking thousands of prisoners. The Poles finally captured it on the evening of August 19, 1944 as the Canadian II Corps reached and reinforced their positions.
Capturing Hill 262 meant the Polish Armoured Division dominated the "Corridor of Death", and ultimately secured the flank from German forces attempting to push into the gap.

"The Poles had closed the Falaise Pocket. The Poles had opened the gate to Paris."

The battle for Hill 262 had cost the Polish 1st Armored Division severely: 1,290 troops killed, 3,820 wounded, and 22 missing in action. It is estimated that from 20,000 to 40,000 Germans managed to escape across the only remaining crossing at Saint-Lambert before the Falaise pocket closed completely on August 21. However, 10,000 had been killed and 50,000 taken prisoner, and nearly all the German tanks and artillery pieces had been left behind or destroyed.
Approximately 650 Polish fighters are buried at the nearby Polish Military Cemetery in Grainville-Langannerie.
On the 20th anniversary of Falaise, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower commented, "No other battlefield presented such a horrible sight of death, hell, and total destruction."

Which Sapper has already pointed out ( much respect mate )