Operation Dragoon

Operation Dragoon Part of World War II A map of the operation. Date 15 August 1944 – 14 September 1944 Location Southern France Result Allied victory Belligerents  United States  Free French  United Kingdom  Canada[1]  Greece  Germany Commanders and leaders Jacob L. Devers Alexander Patch Lucian Truscott Jean de Lattre de Tassigny Johannes Blaskowitz Friedrich Wiese Ferdinand Neuling Strength 175,000-200,000 85,000-100,000 in assault area, 285,000-300,000 in southern France Western Front Prelude 1939 Phoney War – Saar – The Heligoland Bight 1940 Luxembourg – The Netherlands – (The Hague – Rotterdam – Zeeland – Rotterdam Blitz) – Belgium – (Fort Eben-Emael – Hannut – Gembloux ) – France – (Sedan – Arras – Lille – Calais – Paula – Dunkirk – Dunkirk evacuation – Italian Invasion of France) – Britain – Sea Lion 1942–1943 Cerberus and Donnerkeil – St Nazaire Raid – Dieppe Raid 1944–1945 Overlord – Dragoon – Siegfried Line – Market Garden – (Arnhem) – Hürtgen Forest – Aintree – Aachen – Scheldt – Bulge – (Nordwind – Bodenplatte) – Colmar Pocket – Invasion of Germany Strategic Campaigns The Blitz – Defence of the Reich – Battle of Atlantic

West European Campaign (1944–1945) Overlord – Dragoon – Paris to the Rhine – Market Garden – Hürtgen Forest – Overloon – Aachen – Scheldt – Bulge – Blackcock – Colmar Pocket – Reichswald – Invasion of Germany – End of World War II in Europe

Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres of World War II North Africa – East Africa – Mediterranean Sea – Gibraltar – Malta – Dakar – Balkans – Gabon – Iraq – Syria-Lebanon – Bahrain – Palestine – Iran – Italy – Dodecanese – Southern France

Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, with a follow-up force made up primarily of the French First Army.^[2] Despite being a large and complex military operation with a well executed amphibious and airborne component, Operation Dragoon still remains largely unknown to this day.^[3]

Background

During its planning stages, the operation was known as Anvil, to complement Operation Sledgehammer, which was at that time the code name for the invasion of Normandy. Subsequently, both plans were renamed, Sledgehammer becoming Operation Overlord, and Anvil becoming Operation Dragoon. An apocryphal story holds that the name was chosen by the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, who was opposed to the plan and claimed to having been "dragooned" into accepting it.^[4] However, in reality, the name for the operation was taken from a city near the invasion site, Draguignan. (See the "Landings" map below.)

Operation Dragoon was controversial from the time it was first proposed. There was a fundamental difference of opinion between the American military leadership and their British counterparts. After the Normandy landings in June 1944, it became apparent that the Allies needed additional port facilities on the French seacoast. As a strategic objective, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, favoured the port city of Marseille in southern France,^[5] but he remained undecided about Dragoon until he was satisfied that the Normandy invasion was going well. In July, Eisenhower finally approved Dragoon, and it was executed on relatively short notice.^[6]

Churchill argued against Operation Dragoon on the grounds that it diverted military resources that were better deployed in the on-going Allied operations in Italy; instead, he favoured an invasion of the oil-producing regions of the Balkans.^[7] Churchill reasoned that by attacking the Balkans, the western Allies could deny Germany oil, forestall the advance of the Red Army, and achieve a superior negotiating position in post-war Europe, all at a single stroke.

The U.S. 6th Army Group, also known as the Southern Group and as Dragoon Force, commanded by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, was formed in Corsica and activated on 1 August 1944 to consolidate the French and American forces slated to invade southern France. At first, the force was subordinate to AFHQ (Allied Forces Headquarters), under the command of General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, who was the supreme commander in the Mediterranean theatre. One month after the invasion, when the Allied spearhead was well inland, SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces) under General Eisenhower assumed direct command. Task Force 88 was also activated in August to support the landing.

Landings

3rd Infantry Division landing.

The assault troops were formed of three American divisions of the VI Corps, reinforced with the French 5th Armoured Division, all under the command of Lieutenant General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.. 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 (Saint-Tropez), and the 36th Infantry Division landed on the right at Camel Beach (Saint-Raphaël). The U.S. 93rd Evacuation Hospital landed at Sainte-Maxime six hours after the initial landings.

At Cap Nègre, to the west of the main invasion, a large group of French commandos destroyed German artillery emplacements (in an action called Operation Romeo.) These commandos were supported by other French commando teams that landed on both flanks, and by Rugby Force, a parachute assault in the Le Muy-Le Luc area (Operation Dove) executed by the 1st Airborne Task Force. The task force consisted of:

• the British 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade;
• the U.S. 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team;
• a composite U.S. parachute/glider force formed from:
  • the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion;
  • the glider-deployed 550th Airborne Infantry Battalion; and
  • the 1st Battalion, 551st Parachute Infantry Regiment.

To protect the beachhead, the 1st Special Service Force took two offshore islands (Operation Sitka). Operation Span, a deception plan, was carried out to shield the main invasion.

Included in the main invasion force was the glider-deployed 887th Airborne Engineer Aviation Company, which holds the distinction of being the only airborne engineer unit in the European theatre to carry out the mission for which it was trained: conducting a combat glider landing with sapper equipment.

Operation Dragoon Landings

Naval gunfire from Allied ships included the French battleship Lorraine, the British battleship HMS Ramillies, and the American battleships USS Texas, USS Nevada and USS Arkansas. A fleet of more than fifty cruisers and destroyers supported the landings. Seven Allied escort aircraft carriers, along with land-based fighter planes from Corsica, provided air cover.

More than 94,000 thousand troops and 11,000 vehicles were landed on the first day. A number of German troops had been diverted to fight the Allied forces in northern France after Operation Overlord, and a major attack by French Resistance fighters, coordinated by Captain Aaron Bank of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), helped drive the remaining German forces back from the beachhead in advance of the landing. As a result, the Allied forces met little resistance as they moved inland. The quick success of this invasion, a twenty-mile penetration in twenty-four hours, sparked a major uprising by resistance fighters in Paris. The capital was, in fact, liberated a few days later, on 25 August 1944.

Follow-up formations included the U.S. VI Corps headquarters, the U.S. Seventh Army headquarters, the French Army B (later redesignated the French First Army), the French I and II Corps, as well as the 51st Evacuation Hospital.^[8]

Aftermath

Monument to the landings of Allied troops under General Patch on the beach of St Tropez, France.

The retreat of the German 19th Army allowed rapid territorial gains for Allied forces. The battle plan had envisioned stiffer resistance near the beaches, so the immediate need for transport was badly underestimated. Fuel consumption outstripped supply, and the shortfall proved to be a greater impediment to the advance than the German defence. As a result, several German formations were able to escape into the Vosges mountains and Germany.

The Dragoon force encountered elements of Operation Overlord in mid-September, near Dijon.

An expected benefit of Operation Dragoon was the use of the port facilities at Marseille. The Allied advance after Operation Cobra and Operation Dragoon slowed almost to a halt in September 1944 due to a critical lack of supplies. Thousands of tons of matériel were shunted to Brittany in the French northwest because the ports at Le Havre and Calais were not yet available to the Allies. Marseille and the southern French railway system were brought back into service, despite heavy damage inflicted during Dragoon, and, eventually, the southern route became a significant source of supplies for the Allied advance into Germany, ultimately providing about one third of the total Allied requirement.

See also

• Operation Dragoon order of battle
• Robert T. Frederick

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

• Leighton, Richard M. (2000 (reissue from 1960)). "Chapter 10: Overlord Versus the Mediterranean at the Cairo-Tehran Conferences". In Kent Roberts Greenfield. Command Decisions. United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 70-7. http://www.history.army.mil/books/70-7_10.htm. 

External links

• US Army Campaigns of World War II - Southern France at the United States Army Center of Military History
• A detailed history of the campaign
• US historical article of the campaign