On 19 July, the German 2nd Army was split and a new 1st Army was established, to command the German divisions north of the Somme. The 2nd Army kept the south bank, under General Max von Gallwitz, transferred from Verdun, who was also made commander of with authority over Below and the 1st Army. Lossberg remained as the 1st Army Chief of Staff and Bronsart von Schellendorff took over for the 2nd Army. Schellendorff advocated a counter-offensive on the south bank, which was rejected by Falkenhayn, because forces released from the Verdun front were insufficient, five divisions having been sent to the Russian Front in July. On 21 July, Falkenhayn ruled that no more divisions could be removed from quiet fronts for the Somme until exhausted divisions relieved them and that he needed seven "fought out" divisions to replace those already sent to the Somme. Gallwitz began to reorganise the artillery and curtailed harassing and retaliatory fire to conserve ammunition for defensive fire during Anglo-French attacks. From gun and howitzer batteries arrived on the Somme and five reconnaissance flights, three artillery flights, three bombing flights and two fighter squadrons reached the area. Since 1 July, thirteen fresh divisions had arrived on the north bank of the Somme and three more were ready to join the defence.