Slaughter at the Falaise Pocket and The Falaise Gap

Waffen-SS armoured ambulance SS 926256 hit by an Allied aerial attack

Panzerkampfwagen Tiger n°111 of s.SS-Pz.Abt.101

Captured Waffen-SS soldiers being interrogated by the Ritchie Boys

By August 13 1944, the Lüttich offensive had fully halted, resulting in 80,000 – 100,000 German troops being trapped in the Falaise Pocket. It’s estimated that the remnants of 14–15 divisions were in the pocket with a narrow some 32 kilometers gap existing as the sole avenue of escape. The 12.SS-Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend was sent to keep the northern edge of this gap open where gunners, engineers, cooks and clerks all found themselves fighting as Panzergrenadiers. However, Allied air superiority and massive artillery barrages smashed the tattered remnants of the Hitlerjugend as well as the Germans trapped inside the pocket. Thanks to the efforts of the 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich along with the 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen, a large number of German forces were able to escape the Falaise pocket, also referred to as the Falaise Gap after the corridor which the Germans sought to maintain to allow their escape. Top image: aftermath of bombardment of Mortain in front of the train station of Mortain-Le-Neufbourg on August 12 1944. In the foreground an SdKfz 251/8 half-track Krankenpanzerwagen assigned to the Waffen-SS. This armoured ambulance with the registration SS 926256 was capable of carrying up to eight seated casualties or four seated casualties and two stetcher cases. Credit: Imi. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Public domain. Middle image: photo of the wrecked Panzerkampfwagen Tiger n°111 commanded by SS-Obersturmführer Hannes Philipsen. It was assigned to the schwere SS-Panzerabteilung 101. Philipsen never made it out of Normandy alive. He is buried at the German war cemetery of La Cambe in France: Block 30 grave 204. This elite battalion who was attached to the I.SS-Panzerkorps lost virtually all its remaining Tigers in the Falaise pocket and the subsequent German retreat from France. On September 9 1944, the remains of the unit were ordered to rest and refit with the new Tiger IIs, also known as Königstigers. With this change on September 22 1944, it was redesignated schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501. The photo was taken by Propagandakompanie Kriegsberichter Zwirner in Villers-Bocage in 1944. Credit: Christian Breith. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: Waffen-SS prisoners of war being interrogated by the U.S. Special Military Intelligence behind the front line in France 1944. Credit: Jakob Lagerweij. U.S. Army Signal Corps Collection.