The
Falaise Pocket or
Battle of the Falaise Pocket (12–21 August 1944) was the decisive engagement of the
Battle of Normandy in the
Second World War. A
pocket was formed around
Falaise, Calvados, in which the German
Army Group B, with the
7th Army and the
Fifth Panzer Army (formerly ) were encircled by the
Western Allies. The battle is also referred to as the Battle of the
Falaise Gap, after the corridor which the Germans sought to maintain to allow their escape and is sometimes referred to as the Chambois Pocket, the Falaise-Chambois Pocket, the Argentan–Falaise Pocket or the Trun–Chambois Gap. The battle resulted in the destruction of most of Army Group B west of the
Seine river, which opened the way to Paris and the German border for the Allied armies.