 As the U.S. First Army counter @-@ attacked German units near Mortain , units of Patton 's 3rd Army were advancing unchecked through the open country to the south of the German armies , and had taken Le Mans on 8 August . The same day , the 1st Canadian Army attacked the weakened German positions south of Caen in Operation Totalize and threatened to break through to Falaise , although this attack stalled after two days . In desperation , Hitler ordered the attacks against Mortain to be renewed with greater intensity , demanding that the 9th Panzer Division , almost the only formation opposing Patton 's advance east from Le Mans , be transferred to Mortain to take part in the attack . General Heinrich Eberbach — commander of Panzergruppe West — was ordered to form a new headquarters , named " Panzer Group Eberbach " , to command the renewed offensive . Kluge — who feared he was about to be implicated by the Gestapo in the July 20 Plot — acquiesced in this apparently suicidal order . Eberbach 's proposed counter @-@ attack was soon overtaken by events , and was never mounted . 
