Originally Posted On August 21st, 2017

"Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole."

- Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery

The gap was closed and the only way out to escape was to force a breakthrough. An obstacle was a small stream, the Dives. In small groups, some Germans managed to escape to the east. Others were in fierce battles with allied tanks and infantry. The nightly sky was lit up by a constant stream of bullets, flares, and explosions. It must have been hell on earth, a nightmare lit in ghostly light. At daybreak of the 20th of August, the Germans desperately tried to attack the Polish troops on 'Hill 262'. In a bloody fight, the Poles were forced to make a retreat and the gap was opened a little wider, enough for more troops to escape. That day a remarkable thing happened. General Meindl wanted to protect his wounded men and ordered the retreating vehicles to a halt for fifteen minutes and put together a makeshift column. He placed red crosses on every vehicle and drove these through the lines of the allies. The allied troops witnessed the whole process and held their fire. But as soon as the last vehicle had left the vicinity the fighting continued. In the night of 21 August, the last Germans alive escaped the small gap before the 'Falaise Pocket' was finally closed off.

The 'Falaise Pocket' was the biggest defeat so far after Stalingrad. 50.000 Germans were made prisoners of war and 10.000 lost their life. Despite the losses, between the 20.000 and 40.000 managed to escape. But the Germans had to leave an enormous amount of tanks and other vehicles. Those losses could never be replaced by the German industry. The Germans were on the run and on 25 August Paris falls in allied hands. The next month the allies were ready for their next giant operation. Montgomery's wish was to capture Berlin before the winter set in. He came with the plan, to capture all the bridges from the Belgium border to Arnhem, then turn east and head deep into Germany. Operation Market Garden was scheduled for 17 September 1944.

"If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened. "

- General George Smith Patton Jr.

Hello everyone, I'm back(Kind of) after a month-long hiatus you might be wondering where I went and what I was doing and to be honest. I have Artblock, as simple as that. Hopefully that next month I'll be more productive. This artwork took me 4 days to complete, with minor complication(Damn you Microsoft). It featured one of my World War II characters that I will announce officially one day.

Next up is probably for them gopniks and commies in the east out there. Consider that one a fan-service. The battle is for you to guess what it is, but I think you know what it is.

Special thanks to Frostbite, Sparta T. Wolfinson and Monte the Fox who are actual service men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces. and brave British and Canadian volunteers such as Remi, LEON THE WOLF, Bandit, Dreamii, Kaiyotie, Crimson643, RedDeadWulf. You have done a great service for your King and Country!(As they used to say it in 1944) and finally especially thank you to SimonSeville1500 for helping me writing this post.

I use CLIP Studio Paint EX for all of my artwork.

"The generation which lived through the Second World War is disappearing. Post-war generations see Europe's great achievements - liberty, peace, and prosperity - as a given."

- Jan Peter Balkenende