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With color photos and maps detailing the events of the German defeat in Normandy, this is a must-have guide for any armchair historian or battlefield tourist

Following the German counterattack at Mortain on August 7, 1944, Generals Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery decided to engage in a wide encircling movement, to trap the enemy divisions that were trying to advance westward. On August 8, American XV Corps entered Le Mans then advanced rapidly northward. Meanwhile, Montgomery had broken the German front south of Caen despite stiff resistance. The Canadians of II Corps bore down on Falaise, eventually capturing the town on August 16. Together with the 1st Polish Armored Division, they then accelerated their advance, seeking to meet American forces moving northward. With well over 100,000 Germans in danger of encirclement, Hitler gave permission for a general withdrawal. Under the combined pressure of the Americans and French to the south, the Americans and British to the west and the Canadians and Poles to the north, the net tightened inexorably. By August 21 the Falaise Pocket was all but shut, confirming the defeat of the German Army in Normandy. Presenting the details of this movement, Paul Latawski shows how the bulk of the German forces west of the River Seine were destroyed.