The end
At first the German attack advances quickly. The 2. SS Panzer Division takes Mortain and von Lüttwitz is already deep in the corridor. Only the 116. Panzer Division is nailed in front of an anti-tank block. And then the weather brightens up. The 300 fighters (of the formerly promised 1,000) do not appear. They are already involved in dog fights shortly after take off and not a single plane does manage to get to the real battlefield. So it is no surprise that the German push is stopped from the air in the course of the day. Within 48 hours the troops are
back again in their initial positions. The battle of Normandy is lost for sure.
While the Germans are trying to cut off the bottleneck, parts of Pattons 3.Army turn north, by order of Eisenhower, in the direction of Argentan, Falaise and Alencon. On August 9 the spearheads are only eight kilometres far from of Falaise. Montgomery for his part had already started his operation "Totalize" on August 7. The encirclement of the German units was in the full swing. A thousand bomber sortie prepares the attack, then a thousand armoured vehicles of the British, Canadians and Poles move towards the German positions. The 89. Infantry Division just transferred from Norway, as well as the 272. Infantry Division break under this assault. Kurt „Panzer Meyer" Meyer, Commander of the 12. SS Panzer Division with his 50 vehicles forms the last barrage at Cintheaux in front of Falaise. These 50 Panzers hold against 600 Allied tanks. Kurt Meyer's men stop the allied spearhead at Hill 195 and 140, south of Grainville. A last time.
On August 14 the two allied pincers only separate 20 kilometres at Falaise. The 7. German Army and the 5. German Panzer Army are compressed between Dives and Flers. On August 17 von Kluge is replaced by Field Marshal Model. Hitler does not trust him any more. Von Kluge writes a last letter to Hitler:" I can not take the blame to have sealed the destiny of the west by wrong measures I also have no means to defend myself. I therefore take the consequences and go where thousands of my comrades already are". Von Kluge ends his life with a poison capsule near Metz.
The day von Kluge commits suicide, his former subordinates are under heavy artillery fire and bomb raids. The Americans who could already have closed the bag start now the attack of Argentan in the direction of Chambois. The Canadians put pressure on Saint Lambert. But even in the evening of 18.they have not managed to close the cauldron. The Germans use the chance and channel as many soldiers as possible through the bottleneck between Trun and Chambois. On August 19 the Allies make a further attempt to seal the cauldron. Death and decomposition rule everywhere. Woods are shot to pieces, corpses pile up in destroyed villages, smashed equipment, dead horses everywhere and the Germans keep the way open, direction to the river Seine. Only on late afternoon of August 19, the 1. Polish Armoured Division succeeds in throwing the Germans off the Mont Ormel. From the south, the 317. U.S. Infantry Regiment forcing its way through Chambois with the help of bulldozers that shove ruins and corpses aside, gets closer.
But for the Allies this action is days too late. Half of the originally enclosed 120 000 Germans can escape for good. 50 000 stay behind and not all of them have submitted to the inevitable. Rain begins to fall and the Poles on the Mont Ormel lose contact to the Canadians. This moment of weakness and uncertainty uses General Eugen Meindl, Commander of the II. Paratrooper Corps. He forms two convoys which venture the breakthrough at Saint Lambert in the night from August 19 to 20. He avoids the Mont Ormel and marches to Coudehard, close to the famous place, Camembert. The last 20 Panzers of the 2. and 9. SS Panzer Divisions support the attack and keep the gate open. In the end only a narrow track across the fields which lies under heavy artillery fire remains open. This track, filled up with wrecks, corpses and horses, carcasses so much that it gets impassable. After that it will be called "Couloir de Mort“, corridor of death.. This way thousands of German soldiers and generals escape from the cauldron.. Among them General Mahlmann, Commander of the 353. Infantry Division, von Lüttwitz, Commander of the 2. Panzer Division, and Kurt Meyer, Chief of the 12. SS Panzer Division. In the night of August 21 General Meindl notices a group of men who approach from the area of Vimoutiers at 05.00. These are survivors of a grenadier battalion, the last of the German army. The battle of Normandy has come to an end.
