On July 25, the allies launched their major offensive to break out of Normandy. The American divisions were split into the First Army, commanded by Gen. Courtney Hodges,
… and the third army, led by Patton. British and Canadian forces under General Montgomery attacked across a broad front near Caen. Patton's forces made spectacular progress to the west, driving the Germans completely out of Brittany. In early August, Patton's army swung back to the north, threatening to trap the entire German army in a pocket near Falaise. Hitler ignored his generals' advice to let the German forces retreat to a defensive position beyond the Seine River. Instead, he ordered the Germany army to stand and fight in yet another useless effort. The subsequent battle, known as the battle of Falaise Gap, was the largest clash of armor in any fight on the western front. Only the gigantic tank battle at Khursk, in the USSR, was larger(July/August 1943). Across eight hundred miles of countryside, twenty armored divisions, including almost fifteen hundred tanks, waged battle. Although they put up a valiant fight, the greatly outnumbered German forces were slowly squeezed into a tiny pocket by the Allied troops. The Allies had complete air superiority, and they bombed the German forces around the clock. The high ground to the northwest became known as the "balcony of death," as unopposed artillery crews lobbed shell after shell into the German lines below. One hundred thousand Germans were killed, fifty thousand more taken prisoner. Of the fifty German divisions active in June, only ten remained. (MORE) 
