Several elite German divisions were ordered to the St-Lo sector to counter the American threat from Carentan, captured on 12 June. By concentrating their defences twelve miles inland, these German forces halted the US advance before St-Lo, despite costly American attacks in the difficult bocage countryside. The town fell to 29th Infantry Division on 18 July, the decimated American attackers finally taking possession of its cratered landscape in which hardly a building remained standing. Over a month later than planned, St-Lo's occupation opened the way for the Allies' advance to the Seine river and victory in Normandy.