World War, 1939-1945. The majority of them were stationed on Corsica and Sardinia. [4] Churchill finally relented only five days before the date set for the landings. Meanwhile, the Germans also struggled to bring the 11thPanzer Division through the chaos of the evacuation into position in the town. Army GroupG was finally able to establish a stable defense line at the Vosges Mountains, thwarting further Allied advances. HMS Ramillies took aim at the fort where the Germans were barricaded. The first to land in the early hours were the airborne and glider troops. Hickman, Kennedy. Churchill, still opposed to the operation, vehemently dissented to both Eisenhower and Roosevelt, but to no avail. Operation Dragoon summary: This was the name given to the southern France invasion of Allied forces on 8.15.1944 in World War II. This decision would prove to be fatal for the Germans, as it left a large gap in the eastern flank of the retreating Army GroupG. Blaskowitz now decided to sacrifice the 242nd Infantry Division in Toulon, as well as the 244th Infantry Division in Marseille, to buy time for the rest of Army GroupG to retreat through the Rhne Valley, while the 11th Panzer Division and the 198th Infantry Division would shield the retreat in several defense lines. The Naval Forces detailed order of battle for operation Anvil Dragoon, the southern France landings. France's Second D-Day: Operation Dragoon and the Invasion of Southern With both islands in Allied hands, the men of the First Special Service Force transferred to the mainland, where they were attached to the First Airborne Task Force. Ordre de bataille / Order of battle Les Units engages / Units engaged Les officiers commandants au 15 Aot 1944 sont mentionns en dessous de leur unit. WWII: Invasion of Southern France: Other French Locations - Navy U.S. Navy and Royal Navy carrier aircraft provided air cover and support to the troops on the beaches. [43][44] On 17 August, off La Ciotat, a force of two German warships encountered a force of PT boats and gunboats staging a diversionary attack. Operation Dragoon: Senior Allied officers on the bridge of USS Catoctin (AGC-5), the operation flagship, taken while en route to the invasion area on "D-minus-1," 14 August 1944. Stalin backed Roosevelt, much to Churchills chagrin. The Allies had not anticipated the speed of their own advance, so could not adequately provide supplies and logistics to the leading Allied units. Given the precarious situation, Adolf Hitler moved away from his "no step backwards" agenda and agreed to an OKW plan for the complete withdrawal of Army GroupsG and B. About 88,000 men moved north, leaving 20,000 in southwestern France behind. The strategic bombing started well before the landing, and targeted airports, traffic hubs, railroads, coastal defenses, and communication lines. At Grenoble, the 157th Reserve Infantry Division faced the Allied advance, and its commander decided to retreat on 21August toward the Alps. Two days after the landing, the Germans proceeded to dismantle the French State. Although nominally an army group, Army Group G had at the time of the invasion only one army under its command: the 19th Army, led by Friedrich Wiese. [36], The Allied casualties at the landings were very light, with only 95killed and 385 wounded; 40 of those casualties were caused by a rocket-boosted Henschel Hs 293 guided gliding bomb launched from a Do 217 bomber aircraft by a rare appearance of the bomber wing KG 100, which sank the tank landing ship USSLST-282. On Dragoons D-Day, the Allies landed 94,000 men and suffered just 395 casualties. It enabled them to liberate most of southern France in only four weeks, while inflicting heavy casualties on the German forces. Through heavy German fire, the Allies attempted to land at the shore. Overwhelming the garrisons on Port-Cros and Levant, they secured both islands. This town lay directly on the German escape route. The resulting loss of momentum gave Stalin on the Eastern Front a free hand to pursue his offensive efforts with more determination, allowing him to win the race towards Berlin and occupy the Balkans. 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. 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. DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: 20 Years Later, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. [46][47] On the night of 17 August one boat attempted to sortie; she ran aground leaving harbour and was scuttled by her crew. However, the Allied troops were still short of supplies and lacked enough men to directly attack the German escape route. Operation Anvil/Dragoon. Fighting continued through 16August. The resulting fighting with FFI troops further weakened the German units, which were exhausted from partisan fighting. Operation Dragoon field order no. 53, 1 August 1944. Given the advancing Allied forces in northern France, the Germans deemed a realistic defense in the south impossible. Swapped units with the IV Luftwaffe Corps in September. The first, Operation Overlord, in Normandy, was the D-Day so familiar to the world. It enabled them to liberate most of Southern France in just four weeks while inflicting heavy casualties on the German forces (although a substantial part of the best German units were able to escape), and the ports of Marseilles and Toulon were soon in operation. The carriers sailed from Malta, while bombardment and fire-support forces were concentrated at Malta, Palermo, Taranto, and Naples. Seventh Armys VI Corps provided the three U.S. infantry divisions (3rd, 45th, and 36th) that would carry out the initial assaults in landing sectors (respectively from southwest to northeast) Alpha, Delta, and Camel. This was redesignated the 1st Airborne Task Force on the 21st. [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. Despite being outgunned, Endicott, commanded by Medal of Honor recipient Lieutenant Commander John D. Bulkeley, emerged the victor. [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=1149017562, This page was last edited on 9 April 2023, at 17:58. A German torpedo boat flotilla based at Genoa, which could have sortied against the Western Task Force, remained in port. On the eve of invasion, the German defense was in a pitiful state. Members of the Sicherheitsdienst stormed French government institutions and moved French officials, including Philippe Ptain, to Belfort in Eastern France. To fight the uprising, German units committed numerous atrocities and war crimes against French fighters, as well as civilians, in retaliatory acts. For the full order of battle for Operation Dragoon, see Steven T. Ross, eds., U.S. Army War Plans 1938-1945 (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2002), 239. 21 Jul 1944. The Anvil/Dragoon debate also highlights the tension that existed among the Anglo-American relationship at the closing stages of the war. Following Operation Neptune and Operation Dragoon, the U.S. Navy assisted in other invasions. A U.S. Navy F6F Hellcat fighter is waved off during a landing attempt on USS Tulagi (CVE-72) after a closeair support mission over southern Franceduring Operation Dragoon, D-day, 15 August 1944 (80-G-K-15370). The Allied units in this sector were able to secure a beachhead and quickly linked up with the paratroopers, capturing Saint-Tropez and LeMuy. He intended to establish a new defense line at Dijon in central France. The landing started on the morning of 15August. The OB for the Invasion of Southern France at a couple of sites. Operation Anvil Dragoon The Southern France "D" Day August 15th, 1944. [64] As the 36thDivision was seemingly making no progress, an angry Truscott arrived at Dahlquist's headquarters on 26August to relieve him of command. The main ground force for the operation was the US Seventh Army commanded by Alexander Patch. As a result, the squadron was almost annihilated, and the German escape route was again open. General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth Army, has received little attention in the historiography of World War II. [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. Behind their flight, the Germans destroyed bridges, hoping this would slow down the Allied advance. [26] Ships of the Western Naval Task Force approached under cover of darkness and were in position at dawn. Likewise, engagement by the already weak German naval forces in the Mediterranean was minor. Though highly supported by Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the operation was bitterly opposed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. While they did not have to fight the Western Allies as much as the Germans had done at the Rhne, they still had to advance through French partisan-dominated terrain. 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]. Chief of Naval Operations Aerology Section, The Invasion of Southern France: Aerology and Amphibious Warfare (NAVAER 50-30T-8). Washington, DC, January 1945. The commanding officers on August 15, 1944 are mentioned below their unit. Operation Dragoon: The Invasion of Southern France - Navy U.S. [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. Rent or Buy Operation Dragoon : Operation Dragoon Order of Battle, Operation Dragoon, Days of Glory, Operation Romeo, 1st Airborne Task Force, Task Force 88 - 9781155831497 by for as low as $8.15 at eCampus.com. operation dragoon opration dragoon the liberation of. 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. Landing to the west, French commandos were ordered to eliminate the German batteries on Cap Ngre, while the 1st Special Service Force (Devil's Brigade) captured islands offshore. Pushing forward, the final plan for Operation Dragoon was approved on July 14, 1944. [29], The troops were positioned thinly along the French coast, with an average of 90km (56mi) per division. While these operations moved forward, commando teams were tasked with liberating several islands along the coast. Introduction On August 15, 1944, Allied forces in the European Theater during World War II invaded southern France, following the June 6 Invasion of Normandy, France, commonly referred to as "D-Day." That invasion, Operation Anvil, later renamed "Dragoon," occurred at the Gulf of Leon east of Marseilles. Moreover, initial optimism that the 22 January landings at Anzio (Operation Shingle) would alleviate the situation of the Allied forces bogged down south of Rome was misplaced. Devers and the Dragoon planning staff prepared well. The 7th Army attempted to cut off the German 19th Army near Montlimar. The 1st Free French, 1st Armored (France), and 3rd Algerian Infantry Divisions were all experienced units that had extensive combat experience in the Italian campaign. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Roosevelts backing, supported an invasion of southern France. Modern mechanized armies need a robust logistics chain to provide fuel, ammunition, and other sinews of war to sustain combat operations. Allied paratroopers interrupted his communication lines and trapped his headquarters in the city. The Planning of D-Day. Operation Anvil first appeared on the Allied docket after the Allied conference at Tehran in December 1943. 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. While the Germans were retreating, the French managed to capture the important ports of Marseille and Toulon, soon putting them into operation. [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. 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. [23][30], The German chain of command was overly complex, with parallel chains for the occupation forces, the land forces, the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. Within 24 hours, 50,00060,000 troops and 6,500 vehicles were to be disembarked. The battle for Toulon cost the French 2,700 casualties, but they captured all remaining German forces, which lost their entire garrison of 18,000 men. It was the first time English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met. 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. The task force also includeda number of French and Polish combatants.
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