Quote:
Originally posted by Kai-Petri:
In Falaise and later on crossing the Seine the Germans lost almost all their heavy weaponry and vehicles ( that is twice!). So probably the losses were quite close to the maximum that could be achieved with the forces available. Trying to stop the Germans from escaping would have meant stopping the momentum ahead to the Seine and the Germans would have gotten more time to put up some defences, maybe on the Seine?
Some up to 50,000 men more might have been caught at Falaise (?) but as the Germans were attacking like crazy to get through it is hard to say how many more could not get through and how much more own men would be lost if the choice of stopping them all would have been chosen. And how much more time would have been lost? I don´t think either the German SS units would surrender straight away...
I think the time factor here is the important one??
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If Falaise is closed, the Germans lose about 300,000 men (about 50,000 were killed or captured). Originally, about 250,000 managed to escape the encirclement. But, more importantly, among those that escaped were most of the higher ranked officers and their staffs. This made it easy for the Germans to rebuild the divisions shattered there. The command structure was largely intact. Just adding new manpower and equipment was necessary.
Without the staffs it would have taken a year or more to build a new division that was worth anything. And, of course, the experiance of the officers captured is gone. The new replacements wouldn't have likely been their equal.
On top of this the morale and propaganda value of such a defeat would have been invaluable. With an entire armies captured and surrendering, much like at Stalingrad this would have been a major blow to the German public and one Göbbels couldn't have spun into a victory of sorts as he originally did. Add the loss of Paris a few days later and the Allied armies advancing almost unchecked the German public would have suffered a major blow to morale, perhaps one that might have lead to demands for surrender.
The loss of 5th Panzer Army and 7th Army alone would have meant more than half of the units fighting in the Ardennes would cease to exist. Falaise was a grand opportunity missed.