By 1944 the Germans, after two years of withdrawals in Russia, were expert at organizing retreats. They showed their expertise in the Seine crossings. Though all bridges had been destroyed by Allied air attack, they improvised pontoons and ferries and conducted skillful reaguard actions to hold off the Anglo-American advance between August 19 and 31, when all survivors were rescued. By then the Allies commanded the west bank of the Seine from the sea to Fontainebleau, while their spearheads were on the Meuse River, 186 miles farther on. The architect of the German withdrawal was Field Marshall Walther Model, the Fuher s fireman, a veteran of the Eastern Front had succeeded Kluge on August 17.
As Model drew the retreating Germans back across northern France at breakneck speed into Belgium, Resistance forces in Paris rose against what remained of the German garrison there on August 19. Fighting broke out, and, as news of the struggle reached the public in America and Britain, Eisenhower reversed his earlier decision to bypass the capital. The recently arrived Free French 2nd Armoured Division was ordered to libreate the city. Its vanguards arrived on August 24. Next morning the German city commander, Dietrich von Choltitz, surrendered to the Resistance and to Jacques-Philippe-Leclerc, the 2nd Armoured commander. On August 26, General Chales de Gaulle, head of the Free French, made a triumphal parade down the Champs-Elysees to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where a mass of victory was celebrated.
The Normandy campaign had been a stunning success. By early September 1944 all but a fraction of France had been liberated. The American and British/Canadian forces had occupied Belgium and part of The Netherlands and had reached the German frontier. They had, however, outrun their logistic support and lacked the strength to launch a culminating offensive. The coming winter would see much hard fighting, and a German counteroffensive in the Belgian Ardennes, before the German army in the west was finally to be beaten.
Within a few short weeks, the Normandy Invasion passed into history and legend. In my opinion, the primary reason that the invasion of Normandy worked was deception. D-Day was a tremendous achievement for British, Canadian, and the American fighting men and their countries economy. I think that the invasion was the most critical event of World War II. If the invasion were to fail it would of totally changed the outcome of the war.