history · 11 August 1944 · 80 years ago
Lieutenant General Guy Simmonds of the 11 Canadian Corps called off Operation Totalize after it became clear that the expected breakthrough would not be achieved. Nevertheless the Canadian and Polish armoured divisions had advanced eight miles, against numerous well-constructed enemy bunkers which were immune to bombing, and were now half way between Caen and Falais. Whilst Simmonds blamed ther lack of success on the inexperience of the two divisions, General Maczek of the Polish Armoured Division was more realistic in stating that the troops had been given just too much to do. The Poles had lost 66 tanks and the Canadian slightly more during Operation Totalize. On the same day, US forces captured Nantes and Angers and then moved across the Loire River; in response, the German Navy scuttled 26 warships and 28 merchant vessels stranded at Nantes, Bordeaux, and in the Gironde and Seine estuaries.
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