operation dragoon ww2

[36], The landings were overwhelmingly successful. Through heavy German fire, the Allies attempted to land at the shore. Invasion of the South of France: Operation "Dragoon," 15th August, 1944 (B.R. Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of Southern France that took place on 15 August 1944, with the aim of opening Marseilles as a supply port. [76] Antony Beevor comments, "The landings in the south of France prompted a rapid German withdrawal and thus reduced the damage and suffering done to France. [36], French sabotage by the FFI, together with the Allied bombing, severed German communication lines, causing initial confusion among the troops. Overall the landings were successful, with only 104 dead, 24 of which were caused by glider accidents and 18 by parachute accidents. On Delta and Alpha beaches, German resistance was low. This was a deception plan, aimed to confuse the German defenders with fake landings and paratroopers, to disperse them from the actual landing zones.[33][34]. Finally, a projected European theaterwide shortage of amphibious shipping due to the extended maintenance of the Anzio beachhead and the resources required by Overlord served to push the date for Anvil back to July at the earliest. [55], Through the decryption of German radio communications, the Allied headquarters became aware of the German withdrawal plan. By 24August, a substantial number of the 11thPanzer Division had finally reached the battle area. Likewise, engagement by the already weak German naval forces in the Mediterranean was minor. HMS Ramillies took aim at the fort where the Germans were barricaded. The tactical bombers and fighters had to support the landings directly, while the strategic element had to bomb German targets deep into France. USSSamuel Chase(APA-26) off the southern France invasion beaches after discharging its embarked troops, August 15, 1944. This included the 340 millimetres (13in) guns taken from the dismantled French battleship Provence. Blaskowitz was quite aware that with his scattered forces, any serious Allied landing attempt would be impossible to ward off. The US Army's VI Corps, commanded by Major General Lucian Truscott, would carry out the initial landing and be followed by the French Army B under command of Gnral Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. Winston Churchill argued against it on the grounds that it diverted military resources that were better deployed for Allied operations in Italy. Operation Dragoon - Wikipedia [20], The Allied plan consisted of a three-division landing of US forces led by Major General Lucian Truscott to secure a beachhead on the first day. Operation Dragoon - World War II USA Patriotism! Jewish Americans like Isadore S. Jachman contributed greatly to the American war effort in World War II, riskingand sacrificingeverything in the struggle against fascism. Following consolidation of the beachhead, the French forces headed southwest to capture Toulon and Marseille. [50][56][57], On 21 August, Taskforce Butler occupied the hills north of the town of Montlimar, according to revised orders from Truscott, as he considered it too weak to block the entire German force marching north. Operation Dragoon | Europe-United States [1944] | Britannica The next day, that division murdered 642 civilians in Oradour-sur-Glane during the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre and then proceeded to plunder and burn the town. [42] There were two actions against the Allied naval forces taken by other units. The other two U-boats took no action, and were scuttled to avoid capture before the fall of Toulon. Wiese, as commander of the 19th Army, was also unable to contact Blaskowitz's Army GroupG headquarters, but implemented a plan to push the Allied forces in the LeMuy Saint-Raphal region back into the sea unilaterally. Soon, the five foot five airman would make US military aviation history. Later on the Missions Bluebird and Canary, would bring in the reinforcements. Two days after the landing, the Germans proceeded to dismantle the French State. Taskforce Butler was officially dissolved on 23August, and John E. Dahlquist, commander of the now fully arrived 36thInfantry Division, assumed direct control of its units. The Germans tried to establish a defense line at the Rhne to shield the withdrawal of several valuable units there. The landings forced the German Army Group G to abandon Southern . Abstract: Originally titled Operation Anvil and then re-designated to Operation Dragoon, this is a collection of reports, annexes, maps and overlays used by the 36th Infantry Division for planning purposes. [25], The main landing force consisted of three divisions of the VI Corps. As southern France had never been important to German planning, their forces there had been stripped of nearly all their valuable units and equipment over the course of the war. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1993. Operation Dragoon: The Invasion of Southern France. The Germans were already demoralized and disorganized by aerial and naval bombardment and, except for a strongpoint in the Camel sector that was eventually neutralized by a B-24 Liberator air strike, put up little resistance. The German 19th Army under General Friedrich Wiese contained the infamous Ost battalions, impressed foreign soldiers from countries including Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, and Lithuania. On 2September, the 36thInfantry Division arrived at Lyon to find the Maquis fighting the Milice with much of the factory areas on fire. The subsequent German counter-attack gained some ground against the hills occupied by the Allies. The Osttruppen surrendered quickly, and the biggest threats to the Allies were the mines. By the evening of 17 August, the surviving German forces were in full retreat up the Rhone valley, continually harried by French Resistance fighters. Operation Anvil/Dragoon. This WWII military study sheds light on the overlooked Allied landing in Provence and the liberation of Southern France. The Allies were privy to the German plan through Ultra interception. The invasion was neither as large nor as well known as the other great French invasion of World War II, but it was an allied invasion of France, two months after Operation Overlord placed allied troops in Normandy. The Allied mobile forces of the 45thDivision went out against the German forces themselves. As a result, the operation was finally approved in July to be executed in August. Adolf Hitler's secret mission to Otto Skorzeny during the Ardennes Counteroffensive would rely on deception, employing English-speaking troops in US Army uniforms and equipment. To fight the uprising, German units committed numerous atrocities and war crimes against French fighters, as well as civilians, in retaliatory acts. French Army B, soon renamed the First Free French Army, under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny landed shortly after the American divisions. The landings went well for the Allies. August 15 Operation Dragoon, the amphibious operation in southern France, required the withdrawal of General Lucien K. Truscott's US VI Corps and the French Expeditionary Corps. The operation was a resounding success. 1st Airborne Task Force (Allied) - Wikipedia Light browning with minor margin wear, otherwise good. [33][34], On Port-Cros, the 1st Regiment drove the German garrison to the western side of the island to an old fort. The airborne landings would concentrate in an area near Draguignan and Le Muy, with the aim of taking these towns to prevent German counterattacks against the beaches. Each thread of the story about Anvil/Dragoon unravels the neat, straightforward narrative that the Allies advanced harmoniously straight from the beaches of Normandy into the heart of Germany in nine months. On 15 August, off Port-Cros, the US destroyer USSSomers encountered two German warships and in a short action sank both. Navy underwater demolition teams were to accompany the first wave of troops and remove underwater and beach obstacles. [48], The Germans started the withdrawal, while the motorized Allied forces broke out from their beachheads and pursued the German units from behind. While the main mission succeeded, 67 French commandos were taken prisoner after they ran into a minefield. Together, they were tasked on 20August to block the German force at Montlimar and continue the northward advance to Grenoble, while VICorps was pursuing the Germans from behind. Its aim was to push the Americans from the hills north of Montlimar and to force the American artillery to move back out of range. The US 45th and 3rd Divisions were pressing to the north-west with uncontested speed, undermining Wiese's plan for a new defense line. While Operation Anvil/Dragoon did not have the titanic struggles present in Operation Overlord or the Battle of the Bulge, it has many valuable lessons and fascinating stories for those interested in the war to evaluate. The OKW plan was for all German forces (except the stationary fortress troops) in southern France to move north to link up with Army GroupB to form a new defensive line from Sens through Dijon to the Swiss frontier. In spite of its uncertain antecedents, Dragoon was soundly conceived, based on hard lessons learned in previous amphibious operations. The German troops in this area were exhausted and demoralized from the fighting against the FFI, so Taskforce Butler was also able to advance at high speed. The next day, Lyon was liberated and 2,000 Germans were captured, but the rest had already continued their retreat north. The Forgotten Invasion of France | War History Online The goal of the invasion was to secure . However, on seeing the heavy terrain and shattered forces, he refrained and left the headquarters again. Operation Dragoon - History Learning Site Allied paratroopers interrupted his communication lines and trapped his headquarters in the city. He split his forces into two units, with Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert given the task to take Toulon from the east while Edgard de Larminat drove north to encircle the city at the flanks. Soon after they secured the high ground to the east and north of Le Muy, while the Americans did the same in the west and south. To seize this opportunity, Taskforce Butler was ordered to advance in this direction, paralleling the German evacuation effort and ultimately cutting them off further north. [29], The troops were positioned thinly along the French coast, with an average of 90km (56mi) per division. Vice Admiral Hewitt was a staunch advocate of pre-invasion bombardment support, rightly rejecting the view of some Allied commanders that pre-landing bombardments undermined the assault forces theoretical element of surprise (disproved in Operation Avalanche at Salerno). Fighting continued through 16August. They were two important port cities that would increase Allied supply capacity on the French mainland. However, the Allied troops were still short of supplies and lacked enough men to directly attack the German escape route. The War / Forgotten Fights: Operation Dragoon and Article Forgotten Fights: Operation Dragoon and the Decline of the Anglo-American Alliance Operation Dragoon was the successful Allied invasion of southern France that also highlighted the intense Allied disagreements over strategy. Cameron Zinsou is an Instructor of History at High Point University and a PhD Candidate at Mississippi State University. In 2017, Zinsou's dissertation, "Occupied: The Civilian Experience in Montelimar, 1939-1945," won the Allan R. Millett Research Dissertation Fellowship Award from the Society for Military History. The bulk of the American force then had to advance quickly to the north along the Rhne, to take Lyon and Dijon and make contact with the Allied forces in northern France. Still, the American general in charge of planning for Anvil, General Jacob Devers, continued preparations despite the operations cancellation. The initial plan was to capture the ports in succession, but the unexpected Allied advance allowed the French commander de Lattre de Tassigny to attack both ports almost simultaneously. For over four hours, Hamburg burned. Present are (left to right): Brigadier General G. P. Saville, USAAF, air commander; Major General A. M. Patch, USA, U.S. He cited it as one of the reasons why Stalin was able to amass influence in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Another Allied amphibious landing, in Italy at Anzio, had gone badly. Devers and the Dragoon planning staff prepared well. London: Admiralty, 1950 (declassified copy available in the Navy Library, Navy Yard, Washington, DC). U.S. Army in World War II: European Theater of OperationsRiviera to the Rhine. With the collapse of the Vichy regime, troops of the Provisional Government of the French Republic re-established control of the French political institutions. This meant that over the course of the war, the divisions were thinned out and soldiers were replaced with wounded old veterans and Volksdeutsche from Poland and Czechoslovakia. Immediate follow-on convoys (D-day + 1) were to sail from Naples and Taranto. About 88,000 men moved north, leaving 20,000 in southwestern France behind. They chose a location with no high ground controlled by the Wehrmacht, conditions that had led to heavy casualties after the initial landings on Omaha Beach at Normandy. Meanwhile, " Operation Dragoon" (formerly "Anvil") was launched on August 15, 1944, when the U.S. 7th Army and the French 1st Army landed on the French Riviera, where there were only four German divisions to oppose them. Operation Dragoon field order no. 53, 1 August 1944. American strategists and leaders carried the day. The ensuing battle led to a stalemate, with neither side able to achieve a decisive breakthrough, until the Germans were finally able to complete their withdrawal and retreat from the town. The Germans had a significant force stationed in both cities, but they lacked the time to prepare for a determined defense. The result was Operation Dragoon, one of the most controversial invasions of World War II, a stunning Allied victory that may have let the Soviet Union dominate Eastern Europe. Subscribe to Defense.gov Products. To do so is a mistake, because closer examination of the operation reveals the complex ways that Allied relations functioned and became strained during the penultimate year of the war, and how those problems persisted in postwar writing about the operation. In fact, when Dragoon occurred, its effects were the opposite of its original intention. On the eve of invasion, the German defense was in a pitiful state. Simultaneously in northern France, the encirclement of the Falaise pocket threatened the loss of large numbers of German forces. The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-45: A Timeline, Part Two Numerous units were also replaced by Ostlegionen and Ostbataillone. The British concerns about the Italian theater had limited the number of Allied ground forces, but the ably commanded naval and air forces involvedand German unpreparedness and disarrayhad contributed to a surprisingly rapid battlefield success that achieved all of its tactical and strategic objectives in a minimum amount of time. French commandos were to capture key German coastal batteries in the Camel and Alpha sectors. These missions were conducted with steadily increasing intensity as of mid-May, with care taken not to give the Germans any indications of linkage between specific targets and impending landing operations. Unlike other venerated and popular operations of that year, namely operations Overlord and Market Garden, historians have relegated Dragoon to passing mentions in most histories of the war. The first to land in the early hours were the airborne and glider troops. He intended to establish a new defense line at Dijon in central France. Churchill worked to cancel the operation. 1940 Luxembourg The Netherlands The Hague Rotterdam Zeeland Rotterdam Blitz Belgium Fort Eben-Emael Hannut Gembloux La Lys France Sedan Montcornet Arras Lille Boulogne Calais Abbeville A dual landing was soon recognized as impossible to conduct with the forces available. [65], The VI Corps, together with units from the French IICorps at its flank, pursued and tried to cut off the German forces on their way toward the town of Dijon, while the Germans planned to prevent another Montlimar with a defensive shield by the 11thPanzer Division. [13] Churchill reasoned that by attacking the Balkans, the Allies could deny Germany petroleum, forestall the advance of the Red Army, and achieve a superior negotiating position in postwar Europe, all at a stroke. Additionally, American, British and French commando and airborne formations participated in . Within 24 hours, 50,00060,000 troops and 6,500 vehicles were to be disembarked. The 3rd Infantry Division landed on the left at Alpha Beach (Cavalaire-sur-Mer), the 45th Infantry Division landed in the centre at Delta Beach (Le Muy, Saint-Tropez) and the 36th Infantry Division landed on the right at Camel Beach (Saint-Raphal). [19] The Allied planners were cautious, taking heed of lessons learned from the Anzio and Normandy landings. The German garrison surrendered on the morning of 17August. Eisenhower, for his part, claimed that There was no development of that period which added more decisively to our advantagesthan did this secondary attack coming up the Rhone Valley. Due to the new Cold War era, Churchills interpretation of events involving Operation Dragoon won out, and as a result generations of historians have designated the operation as a sideshow. Logistics played a key role in the success of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France during World War II that commenced with the US Seventh Army landings on the French Riviera on 15 August 1944. They were aided by Allied special forces from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), who would supply the Allies with vital intelligence. He frequently wrote and complained to anyone who would listen that Anvil was folly. The American military leadership and its British counterparts disagreed on the operation. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Roosevelts backing, supported an invasion of southern France. The Operation Dragoon drama of Douglas Fairbanks - Navy Times [11] Marshall insisted that the operation be included in the strategic planning, and Roosevelt found cancelling the operation to be unpalatable. Parallel to the invasion, several commando units were to take control of the islands off the coast. On 15 August 1944, Allied forces carried out Operation Dragoon, a set of simultaneous amphibious landings by three US infantry divisions followed by four Free French divisions along the Mediterranean coast of France. The 7th Army attempted to cut off the German 19th Army near Montlimar. [26] Ships of the Western Naval Task Force approached under cover of darkness and were in position at dawn. The remaining 11 divisions were understrength and only one panzer division was left, the 11th. Dragoon was argued to have diverted highly experienced men and much-needed materiel away from the continuing fighting at the Western front that could have been used, instead, to bolster the Italian front or to hasten the advance towards the Rhine by the Overlord forces. Although planning for Anvil had already begun, it was apparent by late January 1944 that ground operations in Italy were not progressing well. At the same time, the Germans also reinforced their fighting force. However, at sector Red of the Camel Beach landing zone, the Allies were not able to succeed. Operation Dragoon: The Allied Invasion of France in the South As part of a general air offensiveagainst southern France, Allied air forces had already begun bombing port facilities, coastal fortifications, bridges, and communications nodes in proximity to the landing areas at the end of April. Courtesy National Archives. Sledgehammer became Operation Overlord, and Anvil became Operation Dragoon. [78], Statistical and accounting branch office of the adjutant general" p. 93, Provisional Government of the French Republic, "Chapter 10: Overlord Versus the Mediterranean at the Cairo-Tehran Conferences", United States Army Center of Military History, US Army Campaigns of World War II Southern France, The Big Picture Command Decision: The Invasion of Southern France (1963), The Unknown Soldier: The Children of the Resistance, Video showing the recovery of several German soldiers killed shortly after Operation Dragoon in 2006, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Dragoon&oldid=1156578118, This page was last edited on 23 May 2023, at 15:17. While the Germans were retreating, the French managed to capture the important ports of Marseille and Toulon, soon putting them into operation. 15th of August 1944. At the same time, Monsabert swung around the city, enveloped it, and cut off the highway between Toulon and Marseille. [12], Operation Dragoon was controversial from the time it was first proposed. [23][31] The German defense was aided by extensive coastal artillery placements which had been constructed in the years before the landing. The French Resistance played a major role in the fighting. The landing was scheduled for 15August. Colonel Walker's First Special Service Force neutralizes guns pillbox on the Hyres islands, east of Toulon. It opened up a new supply route for Eisenhower, expelled the Germans from southern France, and provided the French with an opportunity to participate in their own liberation. The rapid Allied advance posed a major threat for the Germans, who could not retreat fast enough. Seventh Army commander; Vice Admiral Henry Hewitt, Western Naval Task Force commander; James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy; Rear Admiral A. G. Lemonnier, chief of staff of the French navy. Operation Dragoon: 10 Things About the Other Invasion of France in On 12 September, the Seventh Army made contact with Allied forces that had landed in Normandy earlier that year as part of Operation . French civilians were brought before military courts and sentenced to death because of alleged partisan activities. The treaty that Hitler hated even more than the Treaty of Versailles and one of the most important treaties you have probably never heard of. They were opposed by the scattered forces of the German Army Group G, which had been weakened by the relocation of its divisions to other fronts and the replacement of its soldiers with third-rate Ostlegionen outfitted with obsolete equipment. The captured French ports were put into operation, allowing the Allies to solve their supply problems quickly. [62][63] Whilst the 36thDivision had surrounded the 19thArmy, they themselves were almost surrounded, too, during the chaotic fighting, with only a thin supply route to the east open, resulting in their having to fight to the front and the rear. Hindered by Allied air supremacy and a large-scale uprising by the French Resistance, the weak German forces were swiftly defeated. Following Taskforce Butler was the 36th Infantry Division. Collection: World War II Operational Documents: Title: Operation Dragoon field order no. These factors led to a reconsideration of the plan. [28], Opposing the Allies was the German Army Group G (HeeresgruppeG). The choice for the disembarkation site was an area on the Var coast east of Toulon. Australian forces, backed by American artillery, assaulted Japanese positions on Bobdubi Ridge in one of World War IIs bitterest campaigns. The operation was initially pla. Admiral Hewitt's naval support for the operation included the American battleships Nevada, Texas,[24] and Arkansas, the British battleship Ramillies, and the French battleship Lorraine, with 20 cruisers for gunfire support and naval aircraft from 9 escort carriers assembled as Task Force88.[25]. [65] On 29August, the Allies captured Montlimar, and the final German troops trying to break out surrendered. [18], The chief objectives of Operation Dragoon were the important French ports of Marseille and Toulon, considered essential to supply the growing Allied forces in France. It enabled them to liberate most of southern France in only four weeks, while inflicting heavy casualties on the German forces.
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