[1]: 442 Because of uncertainty in the German high command regarding Allied intentions after the D-Day landings, the 7th Army did most of the initial fighting in Normandy although it was later reinforced by the Panzer Group West.Armored exploitation of this rent in the front lines by US units forced a German retreat and then an unsuccessful counter-attack which culminated in the 7th Army being nearly wiped out in the Falaise Pocket.Abandoning what remained of their heavy equipment, shattered remnants of the 7th Army escaped from the Falaise Pocket and retreated eastward to the German border.During the autumn of 1944, the 7th Army adopted a defensive posture in the Eifel region on the Belgian and Luxembourgish border while Hitler husbanded forces for a winter offensive on the Western Front.Unable to stop the U.S. advances in central Germany during March and April 1945, the 7th Army continued its retreat through the valleys of the Main and Lahn Rivers, through the Spessart hills, Fulda, Gotha, and then through the Thuringian Forest to the region between Leipzig and Hof.