Allied at Falaise (turn-limit)

This is turn-limited version of Falaise Pocket 1944: How the Allies outmaneuvered German Armies trapping them in the Falaise Gap.


Situation on 7th of August 1944: British and Canadian troops had tied down elite German formations near Caen while the entire US Third Army had broken through from Normandy to Brittany via Avranches.

However, German HQ realized that by advancing just 30 km (20 miles) from Mortain to Avranches they could cut off the First and Third US Army -- as Germans had fortified all the port cities, the Allied supply logistics still relied on Normandy beaches.

This was a lot to ask from weary German units, but this was the absolutely last chance to contain the Allied landings in Normandy area, maybe even pushing the Allies back into the ocean, and ultimately change the course of the war.

Surely throwing 8 battle-hardened Panzer Divisions against a small sector of the front line could push it forward a short distance of 30 km? In addition Germans committed all their Luftwaffe reserves into this undertaking, named Operation Lüttich.

The Allies realized that if they could contain this last German attempt to take the initiative in Normandy and swing around the American forces which had broken through, they might be able to encircle the 7th German Army and the Fifth Panzer Army in the Falaise area.

The only one thing was sure: At the end of this maneuvering either several German or American armies would be cut off and that side would suffer losses measured in hundreds of thousands of men - the scale so far unprecedented on WWII Western Front.

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