Operation Totalize 1944

The Allied drive south from Caen

By: Stephen A. Hart, Johnny Shumate (Illustrator)

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eBook | 19 May 2016 | Edition Number 1

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One of the most innovative Allied offensives of the Normandy Campaign, Operation Totalize could have brought the war to an early end.

Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds' II Canadian Corps launched an attack from its positions along the Bourguebus Ridge south of Caen, striking south-southeast astride the main Caen-Falaise road toward the high ground that dominated the town of Falaise and the key west-east lateral road that ran through this town. Using sophisticated operational art the initial break-in achieved rapid success; indeed, more tactical success than any previous Allied break-in attack in Normandy.

However, despite this rapid initial success, Totalize did not subsequently secure a decisive operational-level victory. Indeed, Simonds' forces subsequently struggled swiftly to complete the second break-in battle, and to transit into rapid exploitation operations.

Had Simonds' force been successful the German army may not have been able to extract themselves from the Falaise pocket and would have been surrounded and defeated - possibly bringing about the early end of the war in Europe.