Falaise is a town in France, in the historic land of Normandy, the birthplace of the King of England and Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror.
During the Second World War, in August 1944, the area surrounding Falaise was a silent witness to the extremely hard and bloody struggle between the Allied forces and German armoured troops. As part of two operations: Totalize and Tractable (7 to 22 August 1944), Canadian, English, American divisions - as well as the Polish 1st Armoured Division led by Gen. Stanisław Maczek (operationally subordinate to the Canadians) - surrounded, closed off and then obliterated almost all German armoured troops in the German-occupied France.
The supreme commander of all Allied forces on the Western Front, American General Dwight Eisenhower, after seeing the battlefield at Falaise, said: "Forty-eight hours after the closing of the gap, I walked through it on foot just to encounter scenes that could only be described by Dante...".
In the culminating phase of the battle, the main part of the fighting fell on the shoulders of the Polish soldiers. The Poles defended their positions at Chambois and on Mont Ormel, nicknamed the Mace, with great dedication but also with great success. This not only blocked the escape of numerous German forces, including soldiers of the 5th Panzer Army and the 7th Field Army of Wehrmacht (which virtually ceased to be a valuable formation after this battle), from the Falaise pocket, but at the same time other Allied units were given an opportunity to destroy more enemy troops. These victories marked the turning point of the Normandy campaign, determining the total defeat of the Germans in this region. Among thousands of Allied casualties, the price to be paid was the death of nearly six hundred Polish soldiers.
Monuments and plaques commemorating the Poles are what remains of their presence there. A Polish War Cemetery is located in Grainville-Langannerie, which is a burial site for more than 600 soldiers of Gen. Maczek. On Mont Ormel, there is a monument and museum dedicated to the Poles. A memorial can also be found in Vendeuvre – a village liberated in the battle by the Poles. In Jort, the site of the battle to be able to cross the Dives, the Poles were commemorated with ul. Polskiej 1. Dywizji Pancernej (Polish 1st Armoured Division Street) and a plaque next to it. In Chambois, where the Poles closed the Falaise pocket, there is a plaque commemorating the establishment of contact with American troops, as well as a street named after the 1st Armoured Division.