Operation Dragoon

Forgotten Victory is the story of “Operation Dragoon,” the Allied invasion of the South of France on August 15, 1944. It was, in effect, the second D-Day, launched two months after “Overlord,” the Allied invasion of Normandy. As such, it has often been overshadowed by its predecessor, but it significance cannot be underestimated. Forgotten Victory provides for the first time a complete overview of the liberation of the South of France—from strategic decisions made from the Allied and German high commands to the intelligence war waged by Allied code-breakers; from the German defeat of French resistance forces on the Vergers to the exploits of individual OSS agents on the ground as they strove to keep pace with a fast-moving battlefield. This is the story of the Allies inflicting on the Germany Army a Blitzkrieg-style defeat, expunging the lingering memories of the catastrophe of 1940.

Depicts the Allied forces' seaborne and airborne assaults on the Nazi-occupied Mediterranean coast of France

This WWII military study sheds light on the overlooked Allied landing in Provence and the liberation of Southern France. The Allied landings in the south of France in August 1944, are often seen as a sideshow supporting the crucial D-Day landings in Normandy. Indeed, the operation is often criticized as an expensive diversion of men and equipment from the struggle against the German armies in Italy. Yet, as Anthony Tucker-Jones shows in this in-depth study, Operation Dragoon and the subsequent Allied advance across southern France were key stages in the liberation of Europe with far-reaching political and military ramifications. In vivid detail Anthony Tucker-Jones tells the story of the high-level strategic argument that gave birth to Dragoon, and he looks at the impact of the operation on the direction and duration of the war against Nazi Germany. He also describes the course of the invasion on the ground: the massive logistical effort required, the landings themselves, the role played by the French resistance, and the bitter battles fought against German rearguards as they sought to retain France’s southern cities and cover their withdrawal toward the strategic Belfort Gap.

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading By the end of D-Day, the Allies had managed to successfully land 170,000 men, including over 75,000 on the British and Canadian beaches, 57,000 on the American beaches, and over 24,000 airborne troops. Thanks to Allied deception, the German army had failed to react to prevent the Allies from making the most of their landings. Just one division, the Hitlerjugend, would arrive the following day. Despite a fearsome and bloody day, the majority of the Allied forces had held their nerve, and most importantly, achieved their objectives. This ensured Operation Overlord was ultimately successful, and victory in Europe would be achieved within less than a year. Churchill was not overstating the achievements of the invasion when he described the plan "the greatest thing we have ever attempted". The greatest armada the world had ever seen had landed 170,000 soldiers on the heavily defended beaches of Normandy in just 24 hours. More remarkable was the fact that the operation was a success on every major level. Deception, tactical surprise and overwhelming force had contributed to the establishment of an adequate beachhead. Confusion and dissent had stopped the Germans massing for any great counterattack. The Atlantic Wall which Hitler had placed so much faith in had been breached, and the race to Paris was on. While D-Day is one of the most famous events of the war, it is widely overlooked that about two months after the landings in Normandy, there was a second Allied landing in France. On August 15, 1944, a combined US-French force landed in southern France on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur as part of Operation Dragoon. In just over four weeks of fighting, the Allied landing led to the liberation of most of southern France and to one of the most audacious and successful Allied operations of World War II. However, the planning that led to Operation Dragoon (originally named Operation Anvil) was anything but settled. The idea for a landing in the south of France had been raised by senior commanders as early as 1942, and at one time it was intended to be a concurrent operation with the Overlord landings in Normandy. However, the spectacular failure of the American landing at Anzio in Italy earlier in the year and an increase in the size of forces for Overlord meant there simply weren't resources to spare for a second simultaneous landing in France. Thus, Operation Anvil was canceled. The landings in Normandy and the campaign that followed were successful, but that very success brought its own problems. As the huge Allied armies advanced far beyond the original invasion beaches, providing them with critical supplies such as food, fuel, and ammunition became difficult. The farther they advanced into France, the more acute this problem became, and the failure to capture the port of Cherbourg on schedule made the situation worse. As a result, despite disagreements at the highest levels (Churchill remained vehemently opposed to the operation), it was decided to resurrect Operation Anvil in mid-July 1944 with the prime objectives of securing the ports of Toulouse and Marseille. With less than a month to complete the planning and preparation of a major amphibious operation, many on the Allied side were skeptical of the chances of success for this operation. However, the supply situation in northern France and growing political pressures within the Allies meant it simply had to go ahead. With that, on the morning of August 15, 1944, Allied troops began landing on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur. What followed remains a controversial part of the end of the war in Europe.

The story of the second major amphibious landing in France in 1944, which built upon the lessons learned from D-Day. Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in southern France on August 15, 1944, was one of the most controversial operations of 1944, leading to a deep divide between United States and British planners. The US objective was to threaten the rear of the German armies occupying France by a landing on the eastern French coast and to push rapidly northward towards Lorraine to meet up with Allied forces bursting out of Normandy Popular Osprey author Steve Zaloga tells the story of this ultimately successful operation, from the derisive debates between the Allied commanders to the men who hit the beaches and charged ashore to help liberate occupied France.

Former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey and former Romanian acting spy chief Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who was granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1978, describe why Russia remains an extremely dangerous force in the world, and they finally and definitively put to rest the question of who killed President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. All evidence points to the fact that the assassination—carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald—was ordered by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, acting through what was essentially the Russian leader’s personal army, the KGB (now known as the FSB). This evidence, which is codified as most things in foreign intelligence are, has never before been jointly decoded by a top U.S. foreign intelligence leader and a former Soviet Bloc spy chief familiar with KGB patterns and codes. Meanwhile, dozens of conspiracy theorists have written books about the JFK assassination during the past fifty-six years. Most of these theories blame America and were largely triggered by the KGB disinformation campaign implemented in the intense effort to remove Russia’s own fingerprints that blamed in turn Lyndon Johnson, the CIA, secretive groups of American oilmen, Howard Hughes, Fidel Castro, and the Mafia. Russian propaganda sowed hatred and contempt for the U.S. quite effectively, and its operations have morphed into many forms, including the recruitment of global terror groups and the backing of enemy nation- states. Yet it was the JFK assassination, with its explosive aftermath of false conspiracy theories, that set the model for blaming America first.

On August 15 1944, 70 days after 'Overlord' in Normandy, Operation 'Dragoon' was launched in Provence. Three American divisions sailing from Naples landed between Cavalaire & Saint-Raphaël. They were followed from Corsica, Taranto & Oran by four French divisions, who captured the cities & ports of Toulon & Marseilles.

"The photographs from the invasion, contrasted with modern pictures of the same locations provide a fascinating interpretation of the battlefields. The text and accompanying maps complement the photos, making the overall volume an outstanding introduction to the campaign."— ARGunners.com From the Riviera, to the Rhine and on to the Colmar pocket, all three operations are covered in this volume by Jean Paul Pallud, and each show the action and locations in our unique ‘then and now’ style. The project of a landing operation in southern France was debated between American and British Allies from mid-1943, the Americans favoring the idea, the British expressing doubts on the value of such an operation. The Russians intervened in November when, at the ‘Eureka’ conference at Teheran Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet state, declared he was much interested in an operation in southern France. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to launch Operation ‘Anvil’ in southern France at the same time as Operation 'Overlord', the Normandy landings. Convinced that the Allied forces in the Mediterranean would better be used in the Italian campaign, Churchill appealed directly to Roosevelt in June to cancel 'Anvil' but Roosevelt answered that he was definitely for 'Anvil'. On July 2, the Combined Chiefs-of-Staff directed General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the C-in-C Mediterranean Theater, to launch Operation 'Dragoon', a three-division assault against the coast of southern France by August 14. Under the shield of a large naval task force the US VI Corps and French forces landed on the beaches of the Riviera on August 15. Opposition from scattered German forces was weak. As the swiftly defeated German forces withdrew to the north through the Rhône valley, pressed by the leaders of VI Corps, the French captured the ports of Marseille and Toulon, soon bringing them into operation. Troops from Operation 'Dragoon' met with the Allied units from Operation 'Overlord' on September 15. At the same time Headquarters of the US 6th Army Group, under Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, became operational taking command of the US Seventh Army and the French 1ère Armée. The swift campaign soon came to a stop at the Vosges mountains, where Armeegruppe G was able to establish a stable defense line. The leaders of the 6th Army Group reached the Rhine in mid-November but there would be no crossing. Eisenhower ordered Devers to use whatever force necessary to clear the area between the Vosges and the Rhine and to turn the Seventh Army north as quickly as possible, attacking west and east of the Low Vosges. In spite of its uncertain antecedents, the well-planned Operation 'Dragoon' and the forces involved — along with German unpreparedness and disarray — contributed to a surprisingly rapid success that liberated most of southern France in just four weeks.