The second phase of Operation Totalize, which began on the afternoon of Aug. 8, 1944, was intended to bring 4th Canadian and 1st Polish Armoured divisions to the high ground overlooking the town of Falaise in Normandy. The divisions were to advance together on either side of the Caen-Falaise highway, employing tank-infantry battle groups supported by their own self-propelled guns and the medium artillery regiments. Today, visitors to the Canadian military cemetery north of Cintheaux find themselves in the middle of one of the main battlefields. The village of Cauvicourt, a key German position in the Polish division’s sector, is visible to the southeast. Cintheaux, a stone-walled Normandy village, was strongly defended in 1944, and it was understood that unless this bottleneck could ...