Bill and John’s Excellent Adventure

Travelogue of trip from Paris to the Normandy Beaches to Argentan to the Maginot line. For 10 days in October 2024, Bill and John Haller traveled to visit the battlefield and walk in the steps of their father, Manuel Haller, who fought with the Patton’s 3rd Army, 80th Infantry Division, Company L. The historian, Tristan Rondeau, describes the battle of Falaise Gap in which Manuel Haller was captured by German troops and later liberated by allied Polish troops. In a period of three days, from 18-21 August 1944, more than 130 American soldiers of the 80th Infantry Division gave their lives for the liberation of Argentan. Manuel Haller was among the casualties wounded and captured by German forces on the outskirts of Argentan. German casualties in the Battle of Falaise Gap - the gap between the towns of Falaise and Argentan - included 10,000 killed. Manuel Haller, who was a POW at the time, was marched along with German troops through the “Corridor of Death,” that was the Falaise Gap. The Gap was closed and the liberation of Normandy concluded on 21-22 August 1944. 50,000 Germans escaped and 50,000 were captured.