͖ԁi"THE POCKET"j
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"The Pocket"
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THE BATTLE OF THE POCKET
Sunday 20 August

ȉAViIƒڊ֌WȂ̂ŁiIj󂵂܂B

a) The crossing of the Dives River over Saint-Lambert/Moisy*
The Germans will flight all day long to hold onto the Saint-Lambert bridges in spite of the Canadian artillery firing point blank for the first time in the campaign.
Carrying out the order received from OKW by the 7th Armee on the previous day, General Hausser organized the evacuation of the majority of the troops and materiel still coming through from the West. Before dawn, General Meindl, Commander of the IInd Corps, infiltrated the Canadian lines at Saint-Lambert with the use of a compass, his men behind him, in total silence, in Indian file and under the cover of darkness and fog. His 2,000 paratroopers are at Coudehard at 9:30 A.M. and will effect many assaults without support or coordination on the crests held by the Poles : the paratroopers will be decimated with machine-gun fire. But the breach is created by Meindl from Saint-Lambert to Coudehard, by Mahlmann commanding the 353rd Inf. Div. of Moissy (where he abandons all of his vehicles under artillery fire) at Mont-Ormel. This breach will hereafter be called "The Death Corridor".
On the Canadian side, the Currie Group has seen waves of infantrymen around 8:00 A.M. advancing their positions on hill 117 and the nearby areas, "One cannot say that this was really an attack because there was not any support fire in this engagement : it was rather a rush of infantrymen who were mowed down by Browning Autolatic Rifles of the Regimental Headquarters tanks. The report is deemed correct in Saint-Lambert, but the Canadian infantrymen, overwhelmed by the number of German assaillants, were saved by "A" Squadron of the "South Alberta Regt." reinforced by one compagny of the "Lincoln and Welland" who are welcomed.
At Chambois, the 3rd Bn. of the 359th U.S. Inf. Regt. in momentarily repelled from its positions by the Germans who, in reality are not attacking them, but try to get away as they are being chased and hit by Langlade Tactical Artillery Group of the 2nd French Armd. Div. at Ommel and Exmes, and must abandon all their equipment on the roads filled with unusual sorts of materials.*
But on 20 August, taking advantage of poor weather, unfavorable to aviation, the greater part of the German forces encircled in the pocket will be able to extricate itself from that masse with :
the IInd Parachute Corps (Meindl) from Saint-Lambert to Coudehard;
the XXXXVIIth Armoured Corps (von Funck) from Moissy-Chambois to Mont-Ormel;
the LXXXIVth Corps (Elfeld) will be taken by a Polish armored detachment on Hill 113 to the North-West of Chambois after having fired its last shot. The LXXIVth Corps (Straube), Headquarters of the 7th Army with its Commanding General were able to get out. 45,000 German soldiers are crossing or waiting to cross the bridges at Saint-Lambert.
The Germans with 40 tanks and three infantry battalions monopolize the attention of the Poles to the Northeast by repeated assaults and by cutting their supply lines.
Meindl has established a bridgehead at Coudehard around noontime. His HQ is set up at Cour du Bosq where he organizes combat groups each under the command of a rough and tough officer equipped with a tank or a self propelled gun to attack the forces on the hills as they come out of the corridor.
All the units still in the trap in the Gouffren Forest at Dives River, know very well that they can get away only by passing through Meindl's corridor. During the whole day, the Eastside of Saint-Lambert with its bridges and crossroad will remain in German hands, under the harassing bombardments of Canadian artillerymen one mile away.
At 12 noon, the 10th SS-Panzerdivision and the 116th Panzerdivision are clearing the bridges to let GHQ and its Commanding General, General Hausser go by. General Hausser is hanging onto a Panther tank just like an infantryman and will once again be wounded in the face after having lost an eye in Russia.
What is left of infantry in the 12th SS-Panzerdivision "Hitlerjugend", 400 men, decide to pass through the main highway of Saint-Lambert as if they were but one man. At the sound of a whistle, they spring up and jump on a Canadian patrol who is quickly disarmed and left on the square. The German troops disappear as fast as they have come.
The 116th Panzerdivision, coming from Tournai with 8 vehicles abreast reaches the bridges of Saint-Lambert; the bridges are cleared of obstruction caused by Allied artillery pounding the approaches without any let up. Canadian tanks are engaged near the crossroad and the bridges are held under German control all day long. It is a rush of tanks, guns and Bren-gun-carriers that force the passage, hit the Canadians who try to put up some opposition and take the route to the hills where tension is not so great.
It is from the belfry of the church of Saint-Lambert that General von Luttwitz, the commander of the 2nd Panzerdivision, in the company of General Straube, is directing the traffic on the bridge and the crossroad. "It is a particulary terrifying affair; men, horses, vehicles and quantities of damaged materiel during the passage were thrown into the ravine of the Dives Rivere where they pile up in horrible looking masses of debris... In a narrow street, a group of motorcyclicles are still burning with drivers completely charred still at the seat of their motorcycles. At the crossroad, against the side of a house, there is a pile of mutilated and dismembered bodies which is run over by a Panther tank. During all afternoon, some Sherman tanks will try, without success, to enter Saint-Lambert. They will be repelled by German armor and tank destroyers and the Saint-Lambert/Coudehard corridor will remain open".
Von Lttwitz decides to leave the bridge at 21:00 hours after having formed an efficient combat group with the order to march to the Northeast. He will meet Meindl around midnight and will help him at his HQ at La Cour-du-Bosq, then will return to Vimoutiers.
Major Currie on his side reports that he has destroyed a "Panzer IV" and an 88 gun at the crossraod and has ordered 100 artillery salvos on the houses at the crossroad thus provoking a devastating and dissuading German attack. But hte fantastic traffic over the bridge that day will never have been stopped. "It was a real valve through which the whole pocket was deflated."
At 22 h 30 the Canadians have reached the birdges but they are forced back once more by the determination of the Germans who came over to help their comrades. 900 men of the 227th Inf. Div. are passing through Saint-Lambert unleashing artillery fire. Some elements of the 326th Inf. prefer sinking vehicles up the river in order to cross over them. Them are fights, everyone is swearing, etc... While shells are flying above this human misery which is similar to the misery experienced by the horses in their harnesses, they are hit and wounded and also trying to get away. During the night, an infantry regiment with 50 vehicles and 5 guns of the 116th Panzerdivision gets lost and is captured at Magny with 20 armored vehicles and 80 Engineer elements.
The German report of Army Group B mentions for that day : "At dawn, the 7th Army, the IInd Paratroop Korps and the XXXXVIIth Armored Korps in the lead, attempt to cross the lines toward the Northeast : the first attempt is not succesful. But after an overwhelming push by the 3rd Paratrooper Divisionn, Saint-Lambert was reached where a gap was sufficiently enlarged to attempt an exit from the pocket. Most of the vehicles, guns and heavy weapons had to be abandonned for two reasons : the lack of gasoline and fighter-planes. It took five hours to through Saint-Lambert. Without any radio communications, the army had to give up its headquarters. The conduct of the troops who got away was, nevertheless, admirable.*
Monday 21 August
It is raining. At Mont-Ormel, near highway D-16, the last suicidal attacks begin in the forenoon on the Southeast slope.
At twelve noon, the "Canadian Grenadier Guards" of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division has fought its way to the grove near La Cour-du-Bosq where exhausted soldiers are running toward them crying with joy. The encirclement is broken; the wounded and the prisonners are evacuated and food is being rushed in.
At Tournai, Allied artillery bombardment will not let up until 2,700 Germans, unwilling to fight any longer, will have left the town to reach Chambois in an orderly fashion.
At 16 H 30, General Bittrich orders his IInd SS-Panzer Korps to pull back to Orbec; this retreat was done at a high cost. A parchute unit greatly impresses his men in marching in cadence out of this cauldron with a song in their heart.*
Tuesday 22 August*
At 4 o'clock in the morning, the Canadians of the 3rd Inf. Div. enter Tournai taking 150 German prisoners. The 80th U.S. Inf. Div. arrives there at 8:00 A.M. having come from Aubry-Exmes taken that morning. The artillery became silent after having fired 1 500 shells in four days in this little town.*
At 8:00 A.M. on this 22nd day of August 1944,*
"The Battle of the Pocket of Falaise was over with".*
And the Das Reich had pulled out*
