Link-up with Third Army
By September 10, 1944 Operation Dragoon had achieved all of its objectives except the destruction of the German Army Group G opposing it, though it had been driven back more than 300 miles in just over three weeks. Twenty-five days of almost constant fighting had depleted the American supplies and the speed of the advance increased the strain on logistics capabilities. Continued contact with the enemy prevented the Germans from stabilizing their defenses, and General Truscott considered a further attack on the Germans through a gap between the Vosges and Jura Mountains.
On the tenth of September contact was made by the northernmost units of VI Corps and the US Third Army under the command of General George Patton. Patton by then was having logistics difficulties of his own, having outrun his supply lines. At the time the priority for resupply had been directed towards Field Marshal Montgomery in preparation for his ill-fated Operation Market Garden, which began on September 17, 1944. When Truscott informed headquarters via General Patch that he intended to attack through the Belfort Gap before the Germans could establish a defense line, he was told to stand down.
The attack from the south was called off because of the need to prioritize supplies and to reorganize the command structure, as the American and French Forces in the south were now linked with the British, Canadian, and American forces in the north. Moreover the most effective units of the German Army which opposed Operation Dragoon remained in a combat ready state, and now occupied strong defensive positions and resupply lines. Prior to Operation Dragoon the German Army in southern France had been widely scattered, now it was consolidated in defensive formation, on terrain suitable for defense.
The ports on the Mediterranean were open but the rail system of France was badly disrupted by the destruction wrought by the combined Allied actions during the summer and early fall of 1944. Supplies landed by ships in the ports had to be delivered to the front in trucks until the rail system was restored. The slow manner of delivery hampered further operations by mid-September. Restoring the rail network took a higher priority as supplies needed at the front for further action sat in the ports. By October Marseilles and Toulon were offloading more than half of a million tons of supplies for Third Army and the forces of Operation Dragoon.
Operation Dragoon was declared complete by General Eisenhower on September 14, 1944, less than one month after it was initiated. During the thrust into southern France the Germans forcibly removed the officers of the Vichy government, declaring it a government in exile. They were eventually relocated to Germany. FFI leaders established a government in France using the institutions which had existed prior to the war, and with most of France free of German occupation the former collaborators with the Germans were subject to reprisals, some on formal charges from the new government, and some from private means, which the government generally ignored.