Falaise Gap: Losses and successes of the Canadian 4th Armoured Division

[Crewman]

Dear Mark,


Re: Tank delivery.

Thank you very much for this info. Polish sources tell nothing about the tank delivery system for the Polish 1st Armoured Division but according to your information it had to be The Elgin Regiment as well, am I right?


Re: Battle successes.

According to Polish estimation published in 1971 by Col. Franciszek Skibiñski (Falaise Gap Polish veteran and post-war historian) the Polish 1st Armoured Division destroyed between August 8th and 21st the following figures of the German weapon systems and equipment:
▪ 55 tanks
▪ 44 field and self-propelled guns
▪ 207 cars of various size and types

I do not present other Polish estimations, much greater, because as I wrote earlier they are taken out of the air. I am not sure if these figures are not too high as well because we do have only 277 German tanks (187+90) to divide them between eight divisions and Task Force Weaver. If we take aside the "Polish contribution" of 55 tanks then there are 222 German tanks to divide them between seven divisions and Task Force Weaver. It means average value of approx. 28 destroyed German tanks per one Allied unit. Impossible. The Polish estimation I quoted seems to be too high due to two factors: the Polish 1st Div. did not take part in the Operation Totalize phase I and moreover Polish infantry belonging to the 1st Div. destroyed not one tank because they did not use the PIATs. If the Poles destroyed 25-30 tanks it must be all. What do you think?


Thanks for very interesting discuss!

Best regards

C.