Falaise
Commune in FranceWikipedia
30
MENTIONS
11
EPISODES
11
PODCASTS
Search complete. 30 mentions across 11 episodes found for "Falaise".
Oct 24, 2026
speaker_2HOST
Perfectly.
speaker_1HOST
With the Americans under Patton swinging up from the south and the British and Canadian forces pressing down from the north, they encircle the retreating German armies in an area that becomes known as the Falaise Gap.
speaker_2HOST
Because Hitler refused to allow a strategic retreat, his forces were trapped in a shrinking pocket.
speaker_1HOST
It became a concentrated slaughter.
Terry WenhamHOST
One of those Sherman tanks, its gun, that was not powerful enough to penetrate the German Tiger tanks, had been replaced, and now the Sherman was called a Firefly, a much bigger gun.
Terry WenhamHOST
And a young man from Rushton in Northamptonshire called Joe Eakins had spotted several Tiger tanks moving across the Normandy battlefield near Falaise.
Terry WenhamHOST
And he let fly.
Terry WenhamHOST
And he took out several of those Tiger tanks.
JimmyHOST
and the one man who walked away from that summer with everything was the brother Richard had just pardoned, a man named Robert.
JimmyHOST
His son was born around that same time in the castle town of Falaise, and that boy would grow up to be William the Conqueror, one of the most significant figures in human history.
JimmyHOST
To see how the brothers ended up on opposite sides of a castle wall, we need to start with their father.
JimmyHOST
Richard II, often called Richard the Good, ruled Normandy for about 30 years, from 996 to 1026.
JimmyHOST
Richard II died on August 23, 1026, and the succession went exactly as planned, at least on paper.
JimmyHOST
Robert wasn't satisfied, and when Richard handed over Aix-Mise and the other lands just as their father had ordered, Robert wanted more.
JimmyHOST
He took the castle at Falaise, garrisoned it with his own men, and stocked it with weapons.
JimmyHOST
William of Jumiege, an important medieval chronicler, blamed the influence of the devil on Robert's advisors.
Chris ChristensenHOST
Monet actually lived at Giverny for over four decades, so this is a significant spot to that artist.
Chris ChristensenHOST
Our second stop was a castle, and this was the Falaise Castle in Falaise.
Chris ChristensenHOST
At when this point, we're a little further into Normandy.
Chris ChristensenHOST
And for those of you who are World War II history knowledgeable, you may recognize the city of Falaise because in World War II, this was the Falaise Pocket.
Chris ChristensenHOST
This was where a German army was surrounded towards the end of the Battle of Normandy just before the breakout there.
Chris ChristensenHOST
And probably 100,000 soldiers could have been captured at that point, but 60,000 German soldiers were either captured or killed in the Falaise Pocket.
Chris ChristensenHOST
It was a fairly important part of the close of the Normandy campaign and the beginning of the breakout into the rest of France.
Chris ChristensenHOST
But before that, long before that, this is the town where William the Conqueror was born.
Uncle IanHOST
Uh, let's start in France, Scott, or what we now call France.
Uncle IanHOST
The king who we know as William I of England, AKA William the Conqueror, born on or about the 8th of November 1028 in Falaise, which is in northeast France, in what was then the Duchy of Normandy.
Uncle IanHOST
His parents were Duke Robert I of Normandy and Herleva.
Uncle IanHOST
They were unmarried, hence William was known as William the Bastard then and still.
speaker_2GUEST
As a comparison again, just think of William the Conqueror.
speaker_2GUEST
He was the illegitimate son of a country woman in the little town of Falaise in Normandy.
speaker_2GUEST
Now that woman was not Queen of England, was she? Obviously not.
speaker_2GUEST
Then he became King of England.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
It is a country of green fields and orchards and sunken lanes, of dank parks and mouldering châteaux, of deserted mills and ancient parish churches, of quaint timbered houses and long village streets, of silent streams, small ports and pebbly beaches, the whole merging ultimately in the neighbouring lands of Brittany and Maine.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Its typical places are Falaise, Vire and Argentan, with their ancient castles of the Norman dukes, Bayeux and Coutances, the foundations of whose soaring cathedrals carry us back to the princely prelates of the conquest, provincial capitals of the old regime like Valognes or the new like Saint-Lô, and best of all the crowning glories of the marvel of Mont Saint-Michel.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Its chief town is Caen, stern and grey, the heart of Normandy, as Rouen is its head.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
An old poet tells us no ancient Roman capital but the creation of the medieval dukes, who reared its great abbey churches to commemorate the marriage and the piety of William the Conqueror and Matilda, and who established their exchequer in its castle.
1 HR 19 MINS LATER
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
More than once in history has a great father been eclipsed by a greater son.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
The fact should be added, which William's contemporaries never allowed him to forget, that he was an illegitimate son.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
His mother, Arlette, was the daughter of a tanner of Falaise, and while it is not clear that Duke Robert was ever married to anyone else, his union with Arlette had no higher sanction than the Danish custom of his forefathers.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Their son was generally known in his day as William the Bastard, and only the great achievements of his reign succeeded in replacing this first by William the Great and later by William the Conqueror.
Tom GulleyHOST
It became operational at noon, August 1st, 1944, under Bradley's 12th United States Army Group.
Tom GulleyHOST
The Third Army simultaneously attacked west into Brittany, south, east toward the Seine, and north, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in the Falaise Pocket between Falaise and Argentan.
Tom GulleyHOST
So he gets this Third Army Group, immediately goes, gets on the western side, and attacks in all directions.
Tom GulleyHOST
Gets himself several hundred thousand, you know what I'm saying? Patton's strategy with his army favored speed and aggressive offensive action, though his forces saw less opposition than the other three Allied field armies in the initial weeks of their advance.
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