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Operation Tractable
Operation Tractable was the final offensive conducted by Canadian and Polish Army troops, supported by one brigade of British tanks, as part of the Battle of Normandy. The goal of this operation was to capture the strategically important French town of Falaise, and following that, the smaller towns of Trun and Chambois. This operation was undertaken by the Polish 1st Armoured Division and the Canadian 1st Army against the ''Wehrmacht''′s Army Group B, and it was a part of the largest encirclement on the German Western Front during the Second World War. Despite a slow start to the offensive that was marked by limited gains north of Falaise, novel tactics by Polish 1st Armoured Division—under the command of ''Generał brygady'' Stanisław Maczek during the drive for Chambois—enabled the Falaise Gap to be partially closed by 19 August 1944, trapping about 150,000 German soldiers in the Falaise Pocket.
Although the Falaise Gap had been narrowed to a distance of several hundred yards, a protracted series of fierce assaults and defenses between two battle groups of the Polish 1st Armoured Division and the II SS Panzer Corps on Mont Ormel (Hill 262) prevented the quick closing of the Falaise Gap, allowing thousands of German troops to escape from Normandy. During two days of nearly continuous fighting, Polish forces using artillery barrages and close-quarter fighting managed to hold off counterattacks by seven German divisions. On 21 August, elements of the Canadian 1st Army relieved the surviving remnants of Polish units and were able to finally seal the Falaise Pocket by linking up with the troops of the U.S. 3rd Army. This led to the surrender and capture of the remaining units of the German 7th Army which were trapped in the Falaise Pocket.
==Background==
Following breakout by the U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies from the beachhead during the Battle of Normandy during Operation Cobra on 25 July 1944, Adolf Hitler ordered an immediate counterattack against Allied forces in the form of Operation Lüttich. Lieutenant General Omar Bradley—the commanding general of the U.S. 12th Army Group—was notified of the counterattack in advance through signals intercepted via Ultra radio intercepts and deciphering and thus prepared his troops and their commanders to defeat this counteroffensive and to encircle as much of the ''Wehrmacht'' force as possible.〔 By the afternoon of 7 August, Operation Lüttich had been defeated by concerted, large-scale fighter-bomber air strikes against the German ''Panzer''s and trucks. In the process, forces of the German 7th Army became further enveloped by the Allied advance out of Normandy.〔Van der Vat, p. 163〕
Following these failed German offensives, the town of Falaise became a major objective of Commonwealth forces, since its capture would cut off virtually all of ''Generalfeldmarschall'' Günther von Kluge's Army Group B.〔D'Este, p. 404〕 To achieve this, General Harry Crerar, commanding the newly formed Canadian 1st Army and Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds—commanding the Canadian II Corps, planned an Anglo-Canadian offensive with the code name of Operation Totalize. This offensive was designed to break through the defenses in the Anglo-Canadian sector of the Normandy front.〔Zuehlke, p. 168〕 Operation Totalize would rely on an unusual night attack using heavy bombers and the new Kangaroo armored personnel carriers to achieve a breakthrough of German defenses. Despite initial gains on Verrières Ridge and near Cintheaux, the Canadian Army's offensive stalled on 9 August, with strong ''Wehrmacht'' counterattacks resulting in heavy casualties for the Canadian and Polish armoured and infantry divisions.〔Bercuson, p. 230〕 By 10 August, Canadian troops had reached Hill 195, north of Falaise. They were unable to advance farther immediately and they had been unable to capture Falaise.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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