The reason the Brits faced more panzer divisions was because the Germans still did not believe that the Americans were a capable force. They still thought that the Americans were just as bad tactically as they had been in Tunisia and parts of Italy, and so focused their attention on the 'professionals', ie, the Brits, holding the Americans with mostly infantry units backed up by a single Panzer Division, the 17th SS Panzergrenaidier, and the Fallschirmjager. But sides served a major function, the British essentially held the Panzer divisions in one area, while the Americans ground through the flank and with Op Cobra, smashed it open. By presence, however, I refer to the fact that the American contingent was far larger than the Commonwealth contingent, and after Normandy, essentially made the Commonwealth forces a sideshow to the real battle.