Town 32 km/20 mi SE of Caen, in Normandy, France; It is a market center, manufacturing cotton and leather goods and trading in livestock and cheese. The 12th–13th-century castle was that of the first dukes of Normandy, and William the Conqueror was born here 1027.
Some 50,000 German troops were captured by Allied troops in the Falaise Gap as they attempted to avoid encirclement by British and Canadian troops advancing from the south and US troops from the east and north Aug 1944.