On 15 Aug 1944, the US Seventh Army and the First French Army landed in the south of France (Operation Dragoon). The Germans, particularly those near Spain and Bordeaux were threatened with being trapped apart from Germany. On 25 August 1944 Allied troops, with the help of the French resistance led by General Charles de Gaulle, liberated Paris after four years of German occupation. By the end of August, the Germans were in full retreat out of France. The rapid Allied advance to the German frontier could not be sustained, which allowed the Germans to regroup. In September, Field Marshal Montgomery launched a daring but unsuccessful airborne operation to capture a bridge over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem, and outflank the defenses of the Siegfried Line. As winter approached, the Allied campaign ground to a halt. Hitler’s desperate last-ditch counter-offensive in the Ardennes in December (the "Battle of the Bulge") failed to stave off defeat. The surprise counter-offensive achieved some initial success, but was soon contained by US forces. When the weather cleared, Allied air attacks completed the destruction of the German spearheads. Hitler’s gamble had drained what was left of his army’s manpower in the west – reserves of men and equipment were now gone. Eastern France was cleared of all German troops. The Allies resumed their advance and in March 1945 crossed the Rhine river – the last remaining obstacle into the heart of Germany. The first bridgehead was captured at Remagen by the US First Army on March 7, 1945. On the 25th of April, US and Soviet forces met at Torgau, Germany, essentially ending the war in the west, though some sporadic fighting did continue until the Germans unconditionally surrendered on May 7, 1945. D-Day to the Fall of the Third Reich | Epic WW2 Documentary on the Allied Campaign in Western Europe