| located northeast, and this relief
was effected by the 15th, the eve of the Battle of the
Falaise Gap. From the time of the landings at Normandy the 90th
had passed 4,500 prisoners of war through it cages. That figure was destined
to rise sharply.
The German Seventh Army, consisting of many of the elite troops of the
enemy, was moving east, threatened by the British and Canadians on the
north, and by the Americans in the south. Its lines had been broken, its
communications shattered. One thing only could save this military
organization which had once been supreme on the battlefields of Europe. One
thing could save the Seventh Army... escape... move rapidly to defensible
line, reorganize, fight back. But now, one thing above all... escape !
The line of retreat lay along the road running southeast from the city of
Falaise through Chambois, 25 kilometers away. The road ran through a valley,
on both sides of which high ground provided perfect observation on every
action and move which the enemy might make.
Until the night of August 15th there was little indication that
anything big was afoot, and the first hint was an artillery barrage aimed at
the 90th's troops in the vicinity of Le Bourg-Saint-Léonard. The
next morning reports of extensive enemy activity in the Forêt de Gouffern
came streaming in. Artillery liaison pilots reported great convoys of enemy
vehicles and troops swarming throughout the valley. Forward observers rubbed
their eyes incredulously as they saw targets they had never dreamed could
exist.
At noon the 16th the enemy attacked in force the 90th's
road block at Le Bourg-Saint-Léonard in a desperate effort to clear the
shoulders of their escape rout. All day the battle raged, with the town
changing hands several times. Tanks battled furiously throughout the
encounter, tank destroyers waded into the fight with guns blazing, the
doughboys stood fast, containing the frantic Seventh Army within its narrow
bottleneck. And the artillery blasted away with everything it had.
That night the 90th was released from the XV Corps and passed to
the control of a Provisional Corps whose function it was to reduce the
Falaise pocket. The mission of the 90th was to attack north,
seize the village of Omméel and the high ground northeast of Chambois. Since
the main road by which the Seventh Army sought escape ran directly through
Chambois, the control of that town was vital to the Americans, as well as to
the enemy.
The following day the Division passed to the control of V Corps, and
returned once more to the First Army. And still the battle raged on. Never
in history had artillery enjoyed such a field day. Observers, enjoying for
the first time the luxury of perfect observation on numberless targets,
radioed fire missions to their heart's content. Desperately the trapped
Germans beat themselves against the sides of the wall that engulfed them, |
