Comes with hand-signed C.O.A.

The 11th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army which was created in March 1941 during the Second World War. The division was formed in response to the unanticipated success of the German panzer divisions. The 11th Armoured was responsible for several major victories in the Battle of Normandy from in the summer of 1944, shortly after the Normandy landings, and it participated in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, the Rhine crossing in March 1945.

This incredibly rare and museum-grade WWII artifact is the engine fan from inside a British Sherman Tank of the 11th Armored Divison that was destroyed in the fighting during the Battle of the Falasie Pocket in Normandy, France. This engine fan was preserved during a professional recovery of the battlefield where the 11th Armored Divison Sherman Tank was recovered near the village of Habloville.

These kinds of artifacts rarely are available to the public sector making this a once-in-a-lifetime chance to own a piece of museum-grade WWII history.

Full History of the British 11th Armoured Division From D-Day To The Battle of the Falasie Pocket:

Most of the 11th Armoured Division landed on Juno Beach on 13 June 1944 (D+7), seven days after the 3rd Canadian Division had landed on D-Day. It was deployed in all major operations of the British Second Army, including Operations Epsom, Goodwood, and Bluecoat, and the battles around the Falaise Gap.^[8] The 11th Armoured Division, as part of the VIII Corps, was committed to action on 26 June 1944 as part of Operation Epsom. It entered the Scottish 'corridor', opened beforehand by the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division. Despite mistakes in navigation, which slowed down the 159th Infantry Brigade in Mouen, the 11th managed to seize the bridges at Grainville and Colleville. It then progressed southward to Hill 112 (a dominant feature in the Normandy landscape near the village of Baron) and succeeded in capturing and holding this high ground against increasingly intense German counter-attacks. However, a renewed attack by fresh SS-Panzerdivisions transformed what was intended as a breakthrough into a battle for position. Before the German reinforcements could attack, General Bernard Montgomery ordered a withdrawal from the hilltop.

The 11th Armoured was then moved to the east of Caen to spearhead Operation Goodwood. Planning and execution errors, coupled with strong German defences, led to a tactical British defeat. Goodwood was cancelled on 20 July, with the 11th Armoured being withdrawn from the front line to rest and refit. In only two days of fighting, it had lost 126 tanks.

The 11th Armoured was directed again to the west, to take part in Operation Bluecoat. Beginning on 30 July 1944 it seized Saint-Martin-des-Besaces. The division spotted an intact bridge on the Souleuvre river, which enabled it to drive the Germans back. In what became the famous "Charge of the Bull", the division liberated Le Bény-Bocage on 1 August and quickly progressed southward. Although severely weakened at that time, the German army remained ever-present and dangerous. From 5 August, The 11th Armoured worked with the Guards Armoured Division and 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division to push back a counter-attack of the 9th SS Panzer Division.

After being replaced by the 3rd Infantry Division, the 11th Armoured was attached to XXX Corps. It progressed eastward hard on the heels of the Germans, who were retreating after the failure of the Mortain counteroffensive. The sole memorial to the fallen of the division is at Pont de Vère, the location of a battle on 16 August against a German rearguard. The 11th Armoured seized Flers on 17 August. Once the battle for the Falaise gap was over, the 11th Armoured liberated L'Aigle on 23 August and crossed the Seine on 30 August.

Full Combat History of the Battle of the Falasie Pocket:

Six weeks after the 6 June 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, German forces were in turmoil. The Allies had experienced strong resistance. British forces had expected to liberate Caen immediately after the invasion but this took nearly two months. Similarly, US forces had expected to control Saint-Lô by the 7 June, yet German resistance delayed this until after Caen's liberation.

However, the German Army expended irreplaceable resources defending the frontline. Allied air forces achieved air superiority up to 100 km behind enemy lines. Allied forces continuously bombed and strafed German logistical lines, limiting the availability of fuel and ammunition. The German Army had used its available reserves (especially its armour reserves) to buttress the front lines around Caen, leaving few additional troops to create successive lines of defence.

The Allied armies developed a multi-stage operation. It started with a British/Canadian attack along the eastern line around Caen in Operation Goodwood on 18 July. The German Army responded by sending a large portion of its armoured reserves to defend. On 25 July thousands of American bombers carpet bombed a 6,000-metre corridor on the western end of the German lines around Saint-Lô in Operation Cobra. American forces pushed into the resulting gap. The German forces were overwhelmed and the Americans broke through.

On 1 August, Lieutenant General George S. Patton was named the commanding officer of the newly recommissioned US Third Army—which included large segments of the force that had broken through the German lines. The Third Army quickly pushed south and then east, meeting little resistance. Concurrently, the British/Canadian troops pushed south (Operation Bluecoat) in an attempt to keep the German armour engaged. They forced the Germans back; the orderly withdrawal eventually collapsed due to lack of fuel.

Hitler did not allow Army Group B commander Field Marshal Günther von Kluge to withdraw, instead ordering him to conduct Operation Lüttich, a counter-offensive at Mortain against the US. Four depleted panzer divisions were insufficient to defeat the First US Army, driving the Germans deeper into the Allied envelopment.

On 8 August, Allied ground forces commander General Bernard Montgomery ordered the Allied armies to converge on the Falaise–Chambois area to envelop Army Group B, with the First US Army forming the southern arm, the British the base, and the Canadians the northern arm of the encirclement. The Germans began to withdraw on 17 August, and on 19 August the Allies linked up in Chambois. Gaps were forced in the Allied lines by German counter-attacks. The biggest was a corridor forced past the 1st Polish Armoured Division on Hill 262, a commanding position at the pocket mouth. By the evening of 21 August, the pocket had been sealed, with est. 50,000 Germans trapped inside. Many Germans escaped, but losses were huge. The Allied Liberation of Paris came a few days later, and on 30 August the remnants of Army Group B retreated across the Seine, completing Operation Overlord.

LeMay leaflet is one of only a small handful in the world known to exist let alone be in incredible “dropped condition”…making this very historic WWII leaflet very desirable. These do not ever come to the public sector as they are very rare and so few were printed and saved. This is once in a lifetime chance to own this mint condition Lemay Leaflet.