France liberted

Following the setback of the loss of Paris in late November, the American army in France quickly got moving again, driving at the weakened German lines in three places. In the west, US armoured divisions found only sporadic resistance from the Third Reich and easily pushed over the Loire river, reaching Bordeaux by the 14th.

Meanwhile near Poitiers the US achieved another breakthrough, surrounding the Wehrmacht near Limoges as forces pushing up the Rhone Valley met up with those pushing down from Orleans on the 12th. Eight German divisions in France surrendered, but the majority of German forces in France were able to regroup after a hasty retreat to the low countries. The Germans had abandonned France south of a line Paris to Nancy, and on the 15th December 1944 the Americans reached the German border near Strasbourg.