Photos of vehicles in the Falaise gap

[Korbius]

The PaK above that is destroyed, is it a Pak 43 88mm?

[Trommelfeuer]

O.K., the following doesn't really fit in this thread, but it's close to it...

Part history and part adventure story, Armoured Warrior is divided into sections. At the end of each section, you will be asked to make a choice. When you've decided what to do, you then click to the section you've chosen and read the outcome of your decision. A good decision will allow you to continue your adventure. A poor decision could spell trouble or, worse yet, entail fatal consequences for you and your crew. But don't worry, you can always start over and try a new adventure. You should also keep in mind that not all decisions are life and death situations.

In Armoured Warrior, there are two main objectives: the first is to capture and hold a vital crossroads behind enemy lines; the second, is merely to survive! Success will often depend on cunning, attention to detail and just plain common sense on your part. A fair amount of good luck doesn't hurt either.

( Armoured Warrior is a work of fiction. It is, however, closely based on the experiences of units of the First Canadian Army in combat with German forces in the northern part of France during late August 1944. These operations have become known as the battle of the Falaise Gap. This was the climax of the campaign that had begun with the Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches on the French coast of the English Channel ten weeks before, on June 6, 1944. )

Click Banner below to experience the Armoured Warrior adventure.

http://www.civilization.ca/cwm/armwar/e ... ame_e.html

MFG, Sven

P.S. I'm searching like a madman for good online sources (war diaries / photo galleries ) on the Polish 1st Armored Division in Normandy, any help would be very nice!

[Musashi]

The Polish vanguards reach the northern part of the hill Mont Ormel and occupy it after a short fight. The armoured vehicles then drive south and surprise a long column of german vehicles which drive on the road towards Vimoutiers. The Poles start firing and break up the convoy...

Really good work

[Bayerlein spirit]

More pics of Falaise pocket

This three interesting pictures

1.....Cross road with destroyed town after bombing and allied convoy (US aerial photography)

2....Pictures of the Saint Lambert sur Dives battle (Canadian movie sequence)

3...On the same road, german surrenders (19 august 1944 )

[Michael Kenny]

Have had this pic a while but only recently managed to locate it. It is one of the Tigers left behind on the slopes of Mont Ormel. The up-ended Tiger is from Italy and the Panther in the 'Australian' pic is in fact an M-10 with 17pdr..

[Bayerlein spirit]

More pics of Chambois Mont Ormel ( Falaise gap )

Thank you Mikael Kenny for this Mont Ormel Tiger...

This is three photographies which testify the real disaster (hundreds trucks, SdKfz, tractors and panzer abandonned in the bocage.

1....The road ( corridor of death between Chambois and Mont Ormel ) with Panther and destroyed vehicles

2...two soldier crew of this Panzer IV ( one still in the turret seems to be stay eternel waiting ) near Moissy

3...Gap photo... concentration of abandonned and captured vehicles probably near Chambois or Argentan.



The Corridor of Death

Nothing and no one was immune from attack. Colonel Heinz- Gunther Guderian, son of the victor of Sedan, was seriously wounded when his Volkswagen was strafed and set ablaze by an Allied fighter. Major General von Gersdorff was strafed and slightly wounded by a P-38 Lightning at Chambois, and he subsequently reported that "The very strong low flying attacks . . . caused high losses .... units of the Army were almost entirely destroyed by low flying attacks and artillery." One country road eastward from Moissy earned the grim sobriquet le Couloir de la Morn: the Corridor of Death. At night, intruder aircraft attacked river crossings and ferries over the Dives. At least 10,000 German soldiers died, and 50,000 fell prisoner. Nearly 350 tanks and self-propelled guns, nearly 2,500 other vehicles, and over 250 artillery pieces had been lost in the northern section alone of the Falaise pocket. Von Gersdorff stated that armored divisions that did withdraw from the gap had "extremely low" strength. For example, the 1 SS Panzer had only "weak infantry" and no tanks or artillery; the 2 Panzer had one battalion, no tanks, and no artillery; the 12 SS Panzer had 300 troops and no tanks; the 116 Panzer had two battalions, twelve tanks, and two artillery batteries; and the 21 Panzer had four battalions and ten tanks. As historian Max Hastings has shown, these figures were by no means unique; four other SS Panzer Divisions could muster no more than fifty tanks among them. (Wehrmacht armored divisions typically possessed an organizational strength of 160 tanks, and approximately 3,000 other vehicles.) The carnage of the battlefield was truly incredible and sickened many fighter-bomber pilots over the site. Eisenhower, touring the gap area two days after it closed, encountered "scenes that could only be described by Dante." Perhaps the twisted allegories of Hieronymous Bosch would have been more fitting a choice, for Dante, at least, offered hope.

With the conclusion of the battle of the Falaise gap came the denouement of the battle of Normandy. These Allied successes did not end the war, which would rage on for another nine months. But Normandy triggered the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany. Though much has been written by critics about the remarkable ability of the Wehrmacht to rejuvenate and reform itself, and about the "toughening" and "thickening" of German resistance in the weeks and months ahead, not enough attention is paid to the flip side of this: Where was that strength coming from? German forces were being hastily transferred from the Russian Front (brightening the prospects of an eventual Soviet triumph in the East) and from within the critical bone marrow of the Third Reich itself. Hitler and his minions were spending capital they did not have. The toughening of the resistance at the Western Front was the thickening of a crust-a crust that the Allies would slice through in the fall and winter of 1944-45, exposing the vulnerable Nazi heartland underneath.

[mikerock]

More pics of Falaise pocket

2....Pictures of the Saint Lambert sur Dives battle (Canadian movie sequence)

3...On the same road, german surrenders (19 august 1944 )

These are from the same sequence from the one you posted earlier, where Major Currie is accepting the surrender of the 2nd Panzer stab.

#3 is the second photo in the book "Victory at Falaise"

Regards,
--Mike

[admfisher]

The post above with the Canadains in the Gap is of Major Currie of the South Alberta Regt. of the 4 th Armored Division taking the surrender of some Germans after a extremly tough nite.

The import thing is this is said to be the closest we have ever been to a man getting the VC award.
Like I say this is from the first group of Canadians to make up to Currie and his men after the held St. Lambert for the night.
http://www.thirdreichforum.com/files/su ... s.jpeg.jpg

To me as a Canadian this is an extremly important picture thanks for posting it.

admfisher

[Trommelfeuer]

...found some more...

Pictures of the 5th Armored Division
http://www.5ad.org/pics/5ADpics.htm

P.S. I think the pictures titled:

"Each town in the Falaise Gap had a defender.jpg" shows a Tiger...

"Trapped" shows a destroyed Panzerkampfwagen IV...

"One of the Tigers in Argentan - courtesy - 85th Rcn..jpg" shows a knocked out Panther....please correct me if I'm wrong!

MFG, Sven

[Bayerlein spirit]

Find here three pictures (south of the pocket...US sector Argentan Chartres)


1......Luftwaffe officer with US medical soldier during the battle for Chartres (15 august 1944)

2......US quiet soldier standing near a dead german soldier and Opel Maultier Nebelwerfer near Chambois (22 august 1944)

3.....German commander of 84° Korps (captured in Saint Lambert sur Dives 19 august 1944)

[Bayerlein spirit]

You can find here three pictures of german losses tanks (Falaise and Chateaudun)

1.....Tiger of the s.SS 101 abt on the road near Potigny abandonned by crew (10 km north of Falaise)

2.....Tiger2 n°02 fkl316 (Panzer Lehr division) near Chateaudun destroy by rocket (18 august 1944)

3.....Tiger2 n°11 fkl316 (Panzer Lehr division) near Chateaudun hit by gun (19 august 1944)

[Bayerlein spirit]

three pics no comment...

[lisset]

Thanks to all who contributed...Bayerlein....a very intersting and well illustrated thread...thank you sir !
When you look at the destruction wrought , the cemetery at La Cambe and the other major German Cemeteries in Normandy ought to be visited...the central figure in La Cambe sets everthing shown in these photographs in context.....the corridor of death was well named.

[Xavier]

many thanks to Bayerlein spirit and all who contributed to this post,

on behalf of al forum members..this is what a forum is for!!!

well done

"MOK WI!" (MACHEN WIRS:= WE'LL DO IT!!)

(Motto of "Hed" Gerbener, officer of GD division, during the war..)

thanks to all, you have done it!!

Xavier
the link scrounger

[Daniel L]

Indeed, well done. Can someone identify what that soldier is resting on?

Best regards/ Daniel