Operation Tractable

Operation Tractable was the final offensive conducted by Canadian and Polish Army troops, supported by one brigade of British tanks, as part of the Battle of Normandy. The goal of this operation was to capture the strategically important French town of Falaise, and following that, the smaller towns of Trun and Chambois. This operation was undertaken by the Polish 1st Armoured Division and the Canadian 1st Army against the Wehrmacht's Army Group B, and it was a part of the largest encirclement on the German Western Front during the Second World War. Despite a slow start to the offensive that was marked by limited gains north of Falaise, novel tactics by Polish 1st Armoured Division—under the command of General brygady Stanislaw Maczek during the drive for Chambois—enabled the Falaise Gap to be partially closed by 19 August 1944, trapping about 150,000 German soldiers in the Falaise Pocket.