Chambois — Closing of the Falaise Gap

Chambois, FR

The small Norman town of Chambois was the site of the **closing of the Falaise Gap** on August 19, 1944, when Polish and American forces met, sealing the encirclement of the German 7th Army and 5th Panzer Army. Elements of the **1st Polish Armoured Division** advancing from the north linked up with the **90th US Infantry Division** at Chambois, completing one of the largest encirclements in Western Front history. The town had changed hands repeatedly during the preceding days, and the bridge over the Dives River at Chambois was a critical chokepoint through which German units attempted to escape. Even after the gap was officially closed, thousands of German soldiers continued to push through in desperate small-group breakouts over the following 48 hours. The fields around Chambois were littered with the wreckage of the German 5th Panzer Army — burned tanks, wrecked vehicles, and thousands of dead horses from horse-drawn artillery units that had no hope of outrunning the Allied encirclement. General **Eisenhower** later described the carnage as one of the greatest killing grounds of the war.