Hitler's idea of forming a new line on the Seine was a non-starter. Paris fell on 25 August following an uprising by the French resistance. Dietrich tried to form another line on the Somme with the Leibstandarte, Das Reich and Hitlerjugend Divisions a couple of days later, but it was soon outflanked and the divisions retreated to Germany through the Ardennes region of Belgium.

Resistance fighters ambushed a number of their convoys, including one carrying Kurt Meyer on 6 September. The Hitlerjugend's famous commander was captured and, realizing the value of their prize, the Belgians kept him alive and handed him over to the Allies.

The Wehrmacht bled white

II SS Panzer Corps fought a stiff rearguard action against the Americans near Cambrai on 2 September. The Hohenstaufen's remaining 88mm guns were deployed to blunt a tank attack and allow the rest of the corps to break free. The division's 32-year-old commander, SS-Obersturmbannführer Walther Harzer, remained behind to control the battle from his command halftrack. Harzer had taken over from the wounded Sylvester Stadler a few days earlier, and he was determined to make the Americans pay a heavy price for getting past his small kampfgruppe. More than 200 Shermans appeared later on in the morning. Harzer's gunners engaged them at their maximum range of 3000m (9842ft) in order to inflict the maximum delay on the American pursuit. It worked.

The battered and tired remnants of the Waffen-SS panzers divisions were not welcomed back to Germany as heroes and given a well-earned rest. They were immediately told to get their units ready for action. Hitler was determined to continue fighting. Ad hoc kampfgruppen were formed and sent to bolster the defences along the Third Reich's western frontier. The front was barely held together at all by the 24 infantry and 11 panzer "divisions" that Model had under his command on 29 August.

The Wehrmacht stationed in the West was now a shadow of the force Rommel had used in his attempt to beat back the Allied invasion in June. During the 10 weeks of fighting since the Allies had landed in Normandy, the German forces had lost 23,109 dead, 67,240 wounded and 198,616 missing or taken prisoner. Almost 1500 of the 2248 tanks sent to Normandy had been destroyed, damaged or captured by the Allies.

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