I didn’t know how it got there.

@@WalkingDday I was told this by a friend who lives near there. Also the farmers field across the lane opposite the tree is full of shrapnel from the explosion. Every time the field is ploughed, it turns up some of the smaller debris that was driven into the ground by the explosion.

I had a map, many years ago, representing each vehicle recorded as a dot. It was funnel shaped, with the point towards St Lambert, with a fine trail of the few vehicles that got out before being destroyed or breaking down.

All the the ammunition expended there, and all the blood and rotting bodies of humans and horses and other things left the area unable to be used as farm land until the 1950s!

@@williamlarson3623 Thanks for that feedback.

Your statement is mostly correct. Many in those French Canadian units were Acadians and Franco-Ontarians. Dad had a great respect for the Polish units.

@@pierrealarie2897 As does everyone else. The Poles made everyone proud.

Thanks for sharing that.

Thanks for that great story on your dad.

Thanks for the feedback. Eisenhower went to death corridor just after wards’ and you couldn’t walk with out walking on flesh. He said it was like Dante’s hell.

@@WalkingDday Indeed. I remember my friend's dad saying that he could have walked a long way by stepping from one dead horse to another. I suspect he hardly mentioned the dead Germans to protect our young ears from the worst of the horror. (I'd have been 13 or 14 at the time) Having only seen war represented in films from the 50's and 60's which gave the impression that the German armies were entirely motorised, it came as a shock to learn that their field artillery and much of their supplies were horse drawn even in 1944, hence the number of dead horses. Some of them had not been killed by allied action but had simply been driven until they dropped dead from exhaustion.

Pretty sure you mean Major David Vivian Currie. He won his VC on 18th August, 1944. His citation is worth reading. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Vivian_Currie#/media/File:David_Currie_plaque.jpg

@@fumblerooskie Thanks that is correct.

Thanks for the feed back.

Eisenhower went to visit the « death corridor » just afterwards. He said it was like Dante’s inferno. You couldn’t walk without treading on bodies.

@@WalkingDday ….off limits/restricted for years?

@@Idahoguy10157 They couldn’t do that. There were people living there St Lambert, Tournai. I don’t know exactly when the bodies were cleared, but they dug big holes and pushed them in. The places are visible todays as copses. It took 15 years to clear all the vehicles abandoned.

@@WalkingDday … between the corpses, the abandoned vehicles, and unexploded ordinance it wasn’t restricted? Imagine the smell!

@@Idahoguy10157 There was a stench across much of Normandy during the battle of Normandy.

This one a month ago kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fN-ilLl3u7HUfKs.htmlsi=ERkpEHbprBRReWW4 And one 12 days ago.

Father Hupa of the 9th Infantry battalion.

I don’t have any precise details on the regiment on that date. There’s a link here that MAY be useful, but it’s a subscription site. www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/allied/regiment.php?pid=5702 Another useful site is WW2Talk ww2talk.com/index.php?search/21548730/&q=Monmouthshire&o=relevance

They were involved in Goodwood then Bluecoat. Later in the liberation of Brussels and market garden.

By the chateau d’Aubrey. Going over the bridge at St Lambert towards Aubrey, you come to the chateau in the left. There are trees lining the alley. The tree on the right by the road has the barrel in it, pointing to the alley. It’s about 15 ft up. Probably can’t see it when the tree is in leaf.

@@WalkingDday hi thanks for response Love your videos, last one was very good

I hadn’t heard that. It’s possible. In General the German commanders were quite well disciplined , waiting with their unit in a forest for their turn to run the gauntlet of the crossings.

@@WalkingDday Yes, but a commander may display discipline while his soldiers break discipline because of the great stress put on them when they feel like certain death will be their lot if they don't take matters into their own hands. Panic sets in and is contagious. I would not have wanted to be in the German army in the Falaise Gap.

@@ToddSauve Well it certainly was a debacle for the Germans.

@@WalkingDday I wouldn't make a good soldier. If those leading me aren't smarter than me, I lose interest very quickly because they are just going to get us all killed. Sigh ...

I don’t know the story of that particular tank, but the tank at Utah beach and the tank that used to be at Ste Mere eglise, were given by the French army as being surplus. Ste Mere eglise managed to exchange their 76 mm Sherman with a tank from Holland with a 75 mm gun.

IIRC in Normandy the Americans had left their own 76mm armed Shermans in England. A decision had been made to have all American Shermans armed with the 75mm. Later on the better armed Shermans were brought to France. I believe there were 76mm armed Tank Destroyers in Normandy

@@Idahoguy10157 I believe they didn’t bring the 76 mm in at the beginning ,as the men had trained on the 75mm, and it would require retraining.

@@WalkingDday …. That and change of logistics & ammo

The Canadians and the Poles were the most active in closing the pocket.

@@WalkingDday you mean Poles and Canadians

@@zepter00 😀

Incorrect. It was Bradley who gave that order and admitted it in his book, A Soldiers Story: "In halting Patton at Argentan, however, I did not consult Montgomery. The decision was mine alone. I much preferred a solid shoulder at Argentan to the possibility of a broken neck at Falaise". Montgomery never had any direct jurisdiction over Patton's 3rd Army.

Only 40,000 soldiers escaped the pocket. Many without weapons.

⁠@@frankvandergoes298… there’s multiple estimates of both German losses and how many escaped the pocket. That the gap wasn’t closed earlier was contention ever since as to how was more responsible, Monty or Bradley

@@Idahoguy10157 According to Historian Martin Blumenson in 'Breakout and Pursuit': "How many Germans escaped? No one knew. At the end of 20 August Army Group B reported that "approximately from 40 to 50 percent of the encircled units succeeded in breaking out and joining hands with the II SS Panzer Corps." This was an optimistic assessment. By the end of the following day, the strength of six of seven armored divisions that had escaped the pocket totaled, as reported at that time, no more than 2,000 men, 62 tanks, and 26 artillery pieces. Later estimates of the total number of Germans escaping varied between 20,000 and 40,000 men, but combat troops formed by far the smaller proportion of these troops. The average combat strength of divisions was no more than a few hundred men, even though the over-all strength of some divisions came close to 3,000. The explanation lay in the fact that a partial exodus had begun at least two or three days before the breakout attack--when shortages of ammunition, gasoline, and other supplies had already become acute."

@@frankvandergoes298 Meanwhile over *400,000 Germans* were killed and wounded in the overall Normandy campaign, two battered divisions getting away is not big a deal given the above losses to the German army.

But not as irritating as your comment, and how weird it was that you needed to post it. And at least he has something worthwhile to listen to unlike you.

Not even remotely true. And do your own videos if you don't like these.