Скачать или смотреть When Americans Refused - Canadians Won the Impossible Battle

August 1944: The Falaise Gap was Germany's escape route. American forces halted 15 miles south of Falaise. Montgomery ordered the Canadian First Army to close the gap alone against 50,000 entrenched German defenders. The breakthrough succeeded. Canadian forces eliminated approximately 5,500 German soldiers and captured 3,400 more. The operation prevented an estimated 20,000-30,000 German troops from escaping eastward. The complete Falaise encirclement shortened the war in Western Europe by 4-6 weeks, preventing 8,000-12,000 additional Allied casualties - more than half Canadian. The liberation of France was accelerated. Eight million French civilians freed weeks earlier because of the Falaise victory. The Canadian breakthrough at Falaise fundamentally changed the course of the war and the fate of millions across Europe.