Trun — Falaise Pocket

Trun, FR

Trun was one of the anchor points of the Allied forces pressing the northern jaw of the Falaise encirclement in August 1944. The **Canadian II Corps**, spearheaded by the **4th Canadian Armoured Division** and the **Polish 1st Armoured Division**, drove through Trun as part of **Operation Tractable** — the final thrust to close the gap. The town sits at the intersection of several roads that the retreating German forces required for any organized withdrawal. By the time the gap was closing, those roads were choked with the wreckage of what had been one of the most powerful German army groups in the West. The Canadian advance through Trun and the surrounding area was opposed by the **12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend** in its final defensive actions in Normandy — a division that had arrived in France at nearly full strength in June and was now reduced to a handful of tanks and exhausted infantry fighting a rearguard action. The fields and orchards around Trun contained evidence of the German collapse: abandoned guns, burning vehicles, and thousands of soldiers who had simply given up.