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Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket | | Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket: Encyclopedia II - Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket | | While the Division rested and refitted, Meyer went to visit Erwin Rommel, the overall commander of the Western Front. When he requested air cover, Rommel replied:
Why are you telling me this? Do you believe that I drive around with my eyes closed? I have written report after report. In Africa I drew attention to the fatal impact of the fighter bombers, but the gentlemen in Berlin, of course, know much better, they simply don't believe my reports any longer! Something has to ...
See also:Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Early life, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Career in the SS, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Campaigns in Poland France and the Low Countries, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - The Balkans and Greece, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Barbarossa, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Kharkov and the Hitlerjugend Division, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Normandy and the battles around Caen, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - End of the war - war crimes trials, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Bibliography - links | | | Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Barbarossa, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Bibliography - links, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Campaigns in Poland France and the Low Countries, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Career in the SS, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Early life, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - End of the war - war crimes trials, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Kharkov and the Hitlerjugend Division, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Normandy and the battles around Caen, Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - The Balkans and Greece | | |
| | | Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer: Encyclopedia II - Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket
Kurt Meyer Panzermeyer - Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket
While the Division rested and refitted, Meyer went to visit Erwin Rommel, the overall commander of the Western Front. When he requested air cover, Rommel replied:
Why are you telling me this? Do you believe that I drive around with my eyes closed? I have written report after report. In Africa I drew attention to the fatal impact of the fighter bombers, but the gentlemen in Berlin, of course, know much better, they simply don't believe my reports any longer! Something has to happen! The war in the west has to end! But what will happen in the east?
Later that afternoon, Rommel's own staff car was strafed and he was wounded. Soon after this, he was forced into suicide for complicity in the July 1944 Bomb Plot.
The Canadians began their assault on Falaise, meaning to meet up with the Americans who were circling behind the German lines, hoping to surround and destroy the German divisions around Caen. Meyer realised at this point that further resistance can only end with death or capture, nonetheless he set up his battered division to attempt to defend the road to Falaise. After several days fighting, Meyer realised again that he had to try to save the remainder of his division, reduced to about 1,500 men. He led his men in an attempt to break out of the Falaise pocket. Here he speaks of the terror felt when surrounded:
The misery around us screams to high heaven. Refugees and soldiers from the broken German armies look helplessly at the bombers flying continuously overhead. It is useless to take cover from the bursting shells and bombs. Concentrated in such a confined space, we offer unique targets for the enemy air power. The forest areas are full of wounded soldiers and the sundered bodies of horses. Death shadows us at every step. We are lying as if on a salver in full view and range of the 4th Canadian and 1st Polish Divisions' guns. It is impossible to miss.
Despite this, Meyer made it out of the Falaise pocket. On 27 August, he became the 91st soldier to be awarded the Swords to the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves. One week later, on 1 September, he was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer (Brigadier). Meyer and the remnants of the Hitlerjugend joined the retreat across the Seine River and into Belgium. On September 6, 1944, in the town of Durnal near Namur in Belgium, he was captured by partisans and handed over to American forces. The proud member of the Waffen SS had put on the uniform of a regular German army Captain before he was captured.
Other related archives12-SS Panzer Division 'Hitlerjugend', 1910, 1910 births, 1926, 1961, 1961 deaths, 2.SS Das Reich, 3.SS Totenkopf, Abbey Ardennes, Abteilung, Adolf Hitler, Anti-Tank, Aufklärungsabteilung, Balkans, Barbarossa, Battle of Normandy, Belgium, Berlin, Chancellor of Germany, Czechoslovakia, December 23, Erwin Rommel, Falaise pocket, Fall Weiss, First World War, Fritz Witt, Gerd von Rundstedt, German generals, Großdeutschland division, Hasselt, Heer, Heeresgruppe Süd, Heinrich Himmler, Heinz Guderian, Hitler Youth, II SS-Korps, Imperial German Army, Invasion of France, Iron Cross, Joachim Peiper, July 1944 Bomb Plot, Kampfgruppes, Kharkov, Knight's Cross, Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and Swords, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Mariupol, Mecklenburg, Mussolini, NSDAP, Niedersachsen, Operation Barbarossa, Operation Overlord, Paul Hausser, People convicted in the Nuremberg Trials, Reconnaissance, SS General Officers, SS Officers, SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 'Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler', Schutzstaffel, Schwerin, Second World War, Southwestern Fronts, Sword Beach, Third Battle of Kharkov, Third Reich, Voronezh, Waffen-SS, war crimes
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Final battles in Normandy - Falaise pocket", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
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