In 2013, Buckley wrote that by 1 July, there was a stalemate in which the British were established south of the Odon but had retired from Hill 112, which may have been premature. The Germans had maintained a continuous front but only by using reserves which made it impossible to begin the counter-offensive planned by , which made the offensive a considerable Allied success, as part of a strategy of attrition based on organised fire power. Looked on as an attempt to break through and force the Germans out of Caen the operation failed but in terms of Montgomery's strategy it was a costly victory. The German defence of Normandy never recovered from the damage inflicted during Epsom, the initiative was lost and German counter-attack tactics failed in the face of Allied fire power, with even greater cost than that inflicted on the British; the German command structure and assumptions on which the defence was based were undermined.