On 8 September 1944, in a letter to Martin Bormann (with whom Bürckel didn't get along), Bürckel opined that the lack of combat-ready troops to occupy the defensive line of the Moselle from the boundary of Gau Westmark via the arsenal of Metz-Diedenhofen, south of Saint-Avold (part of the Maginot Line), to Sarralbe made construction of such defensive positions useless.