90 Infantry Division (USA) heading Carrouges to Sées

On August 10th the 90th Division made its plans to move northward. And so another phase of battle began, a phase which was to end only when the German Command had learned to fear the 90th for additional valid reasons.

The 90th Division was instructed to proceed northward, follow the 2nd French Armored Division, and seize a line from Carrouges to Sées, approximately sixty miles away, and due west of Paris.

The Division advanced by bounds, meeting nothing of consequence in the way of resistance. Alençon was taken on the 12th and positions across the Sarthe River consolidated on the 13th. Shortly thereafter the 90th was ordered to relieve the 5th Armored Division located northeast, and this relief was effected by the 15th, the eve of the Battle of the Falaise Gap.

From the time of the landings at Normandy the 90th had passed 4,500 prisoners of war through it cages. That figure was destined to rise sharply. The German Seventh Army, consisting of many of the elite troops of the enemy, was moving east, threatened by the British and Canadians on the north, and by the Americans in the south. Its lines had been broken, its communications shattered. One thing only could save this military organization which had once been supreme on the battlefields of Europe.

One thing could save the Seventh Army... escape... move rapidly to defensible line, reorganize, fight back. But now, one thing above all... escape ! The line of retreat lay along the road running southeast from the city of Falaise through Chambois, 25 kilometers away. The road ran through a valley, on both sides of which high ground provided perfect observation on every action and move which the enemy might make.