As a result, the operation was finally approved in July to be executed in August. Although planning for Anvil had already begun, it was apparent by late January 1944 that ground operations in Italy were not progressing well. 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. [52] In both harbours, German engineers had demolished port facilities to deny their use to the Allies. The division surrounded the town of LesArcs, recently reoccupied by vonSchwerin's troops, and attempted to isolate the German forces there. Though highly supported by Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the operation was bitterly opposed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The British disagreed with the American stance due to the weak political impact and lack of movement in Italy. After landing at Anzio on 1 February 1944, their aggressive night patrols earned them the nickname the 'Devils Brigade.' On 4 June 1944, the FSSF spearheaded the Allied entry into Rome, securing key bridges for the major U.S. II Corps assault. Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France, began. Unable to fully oppose the invasion, Blaskowitz began making preparations for the planned withdrawal north. The Osttruppen surrendered quickly, and the biggest threats to the Allies were the mines. Western Task Force ships provided gunfire support, targeting the old, but very solid, port fortifications. A veteran and skilled combat commander, Truscott had played a key role in rescuing Allied fortunes at Anzio earlier in the year. During planning stages, the operation was known as "Anvil", to complement Operation Sledgehammer, at that time the code name for the invasion of Normandy. 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 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. At Grenoble, the 157th Reserve Infantry Division faced the Allied advance, and its commander decided to retreat on 21August toward the Alps. Despite Churchill's objections, the operation was authorized by the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff on 14July, then renamed Dragoon on 1August. This attack was, however, also a big failure. [35] The British took the villages of Le Mitan, La Motte, Clastron and Les Serres and then assaulted and captured the bridge over the River Naturby, which carried the road to Le Muy. However, at sector Red of the Camel Beach landing zone, the Allies were not able to succeed. Short on troops, Blaskowitz's command found itself stretched thin with each division along the coast responsible for 56 miles of shoreline. This formation included a British parachute infantry battalion, the only British ground unit taking part in Dragoon. The Kriegsmarine had some 25 surface ships (mostly torpedo boats and smaller) though the main anti-invasion force, 10th Torpedo Boat Flotilla based at Genoa, had just four torpedo boats fit for service during Dragoon and this force took no action against the invasion fleet. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. Fighting continued through 16August. Despite its effectively forcing the German Army Group G to fall back and leave Southern France because of the constant attacks by allied troops it isn't very well known. After securing the town, the airborne was tasked with preventing German counterattacks against the beaches. The 1st Airborne Task Force force landed in the River Argens valley around the area of Le Muy with the objective of preventing German reinforcements from reaching the landing beaches. Lieutenant General Alexander McC. Hickman, Kennedy. (Numerous supporting units were also involved in the . 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. The first to land in the early hours were the airborne and glider troops. 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. operation dragoon invasion of southern france wwii. 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. 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. [50][53], The French Allied forces that helped liberate Toulon and Marseille consisted of large numbers of men from the Free French Colonial Infantry Division - Algerians, Malians, Mauritanians, and the Senegalese Tirailleurs, under General Charles de Gaulle. The Allied units in this sector were able to secure a beachhead and quickly linked up with the paratroopers, capturing Saint-Tropez and LeMuy. This is the order of battle of Allied and German forces during Operation Dragoon in 1944. Their main effort was supported by diversionary flank landings by other commando teams. This, combined with the Allied need to reorganise their command structure as the forces from northern and southern France linked up, forced the Allies to stop their pursuit of the Germans, ending the offensive here. [49][50], Meanwhile, the disembarked French units started to head for Marseille and Toulon. 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. The First French Army quickly surrounded Marseille and Toulon. By that time, the Allies had already landed a significant number of troops, vehicles, and tanks. Mounting a large-scale assault the next day, the Germans were unable to dislodge the Americans from the area. First proposed by General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army, and intended to coincide with Operation Overlord, the landings in Normandy, the attack was put off due to slower than expected progress in Italy as well as a lack of landing craft. Johannes Blaskowitz's Army GroupG headquarters discussed a general withdrawal from southern France in July and August with the German High Command, but the 20 July plot led to an atmosphere in which any withdrawal was out of the question. The main landings were assigned respectively to the 3rd, 45th, and 36th Infantry Divisions from Major General Lucian Truscott's VI Corps with assistance from the 1st French Armoured Division. U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II: Southern France (CMH Pub 72-31). This was put on hold following the July 20 Plot against Hitler. The Allies struck back and retook the hills north of Montlimar, and were able to establish a temporary roadblock on the German escape route. [71], Atrocities continued during the German retreat from southern France as German soldiers plundered and burned down towns. The relatively steep beach gradients with small tidal range discouraged Axis placement of underwater obstacles, but landing beaches had been defensively mined. The sudden appearance of this new threat shocked Wiese and the German command. 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. As a result, the squadron was almost annihilated, and the German escape route was again open. The Germans suffered 2,100 battle casualties plus 8,000 POWs, while the Americans had 1,575 casualties. However, the Allies failed to cut off the most valuable units of the retreating Army Group G, which retreated over a distance of 800km (500mi) in good order, into the Vosges Mountains on the German border, with the capability of continuing the fight. Since the 442nd became available while the 552nd was in training and took very little time to train on the British 6lb. In October, 524,894 tons of supplies were unloaded, which was more than one-third of the Allied cargo shipped to the Western front. History. The captured French ports were put into operation, allowing the Allies to solve their supply problems quickly. [70], French resistance against the Nazi German occupation and the Vichy French puppet government increased drastically in the weeks leading up to the Dragoon landings. World War II: Operation Dragoon. 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. The equipment of those troops was in poor shape, consisting of old weapons from various nations, with French, Polish, Soviet, Italian and Czech guns, artillery, and mortars. Despite being outgunned, Endicott, commanded by Medal of Honor recipient Lieutenant Commander John D. Bulkeley, emerged the victor. Beginning on August 18, 1944, the soldiers of Task Force (TF) Butler made a bold attempt to cut off the retreating German Nineteenth Army in 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 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. Finally, during 2628August, the majority of the German forces were able to escape, leaving behind 4,000 burnt-out vehicles and 1,500 dead horses. Marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, The National WWII Museum connects two instances of remorse for Nazi criminality by leading German politicians. Rather, it shows how the opinions of individuals and the alteration of carefully laid plans can test the bonds of alliance. The Order of Battle (OrBat) shows the formation of the forces that were in Operation Veritable in the beginning of February 1945. The U.S.-Canadian 1st Special Service Force, a specialized light infantry brigade, was assigned to capture Port Cros and Levant islands in the Sitka sector off Cap Benat, thus securing Dragoons left flank. As a result, its execution was pushed back to August 1944. "World War II: 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=1149017562, This page was last edited on 9 April 2023, at 17:58. The Wehrmacht was not able to defend on a broad front and soon crumbled into numerous isolated strongpoints. The majority of them were stationed on Corsica and Sardinia. Anvil planning was again raised during the Allied Cairo and Teheran conferences, held 22 November through 1 December 1943, at which time the first viable date for the operation was set for May 1944. The American component being the largest, consisted of the air dropped Mission Albatross, followed by the Glider born Mission Dove. https://www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-operation-dragoon-2361477 (accessed May 1, 2023). Present are (left to right): Brigadier General G. P. Saville, USAAF, air commander; Major General A. M. Patch, USA, U.S. [23][31] The German defense was aided by extensive coastal artillery placements which had been constructed in the years before the landing. The Germans had a significant force stationed in both cities, but they lacked the time to prepare for a determined defense. After some initial skirmishes, the 11thPanzer Division launched a heavy attack into the city, causing 215 American casualties and destroying a number of tanks and vehicles. 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]. Barjols and Brignoles were taken by the two American divisions on 19August, which also were about to envelop Toulon, as well as Marseille from the north, cutting off the German units there. Hickman, Kennedy. Bombing was nearly continuous until 07:30, when battleships and cruisers launched spotting aircraft and began firing on specific targets detected by aerial surveillance. Operation Dragoon: Senior Allied officers on the bridge of USSCatoctin, the flagship of Operation Dragoon, while en route to the invasion area on August 14, 1944. This was halted and Devers and Patch soon learned of the gap on the German left. While these operations moved forward, commando teams were tasked with liberating several islands along the coast. 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, 1st Battalion, 551st Parachute Infantry Regiment, British 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, "645th Tank Destroyer Bn. A single German gun and a mortar position were silenced by destroyer fire. He, therefore, ordered the nearby 148th Infantry Division to counterattack against the beaches at LeMuy, just before the Allied paratroopers cut him off completely. In conducting Operation Dragoon, the Allies sustained around 17,000 killed and wounded while inflicting losses numbering approximately 7,000 killed, 10,000 wounded, and 130,000 captured on the Germans. The landings themselves were very successful and barely opposed. From documents from the National Archives. The landings went well for the Allies. The 1st Airborne Task Force then awaited for the arrival of ground troops whilst holding off a number of counterattacks. Four of the German divisions were designated as "static", which meant that they were stripped of all of their mobile capabilities and unable to move from their positions. 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. German field commanders were not able to communicate with Army GroupG's headquarters. Morison, Samuel Eliot. Choosing the Var coast east of Toulon, they designated three primary landing beaches: Alpha (Cavalaire-sur-Mer), Delta (Saint-Tropez), and Camel (Saint-Raphal). During the retreat, about 19,000 men were captured by the Allies and 60,000 men reached Army GroupG's line, where they were integrated into the defense of the Vosges Mountains. Brest, where the U.S. Navy had air and naval bases during World War I, was liberated on September 18 after four weeks from the initial seize. Immediate follow-on convoys (D-day + 1) were to sail from Naples and Taranto. Churchill worked to cancel the operation. Order of Battle First Airborne Task Force Operation Dragoon 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment Commanding Officer : Colonel Rupert D. Grave Assistant Regimental Commander : Maj. George R. "Ike" Walton1 Regimental S-1 : Capt. Order of Battle for Operation Veritable. 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. Operation Dragoon was the Al . Another Allied amphibious landing, in Italy at Anzio, had gone badly. 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. In fact, when Dragoon occurred, its effects were the opposite of its original intention. World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- France, Southern. At the same time, Monsabert swung around the city, enveloped it, and cut off the highway between Toulon and Marseille. Within 24 hours, 50,00060,000 troops and 6,500 vehicles were to be disembarked. Operation Anvil Dragoon The Southern France "D" Day August 15th, 1944. Attached 22 August 1944 to replace the British 2nd Parachute brigade; later assigned. Coalition Forces Land Component Command [ edit] Emblem of the Coalition Forces Land Component Command during the Iraq War Still, the American general in charge of planning for Anvil, General Jacob Devers, continued preparations despite the operations cancellation. The original idea of invading southern France had come in 1942 from General George Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff. Already badly outnumbered as Allied troops had been streaming ashore since the previous day, this force was nearly cut off and fell back that night. Following Operation Neptune and Operation Dragoon, the U.S. Navy assisted in other invasions. Due to shipping issues because of the need to continue to supply the Allied beachhead at Anzio, Anvil got squeezed out of Allied plans. Present are. [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. Operation Dragoon field order no. The 11th Panzer Division started several feint attacks toward Aix-en-Provence to discourage any further Allied advance. By 3September, Montreval was secure, but the squadron soon found itself trapped by units from the 11thPanzer Division, which surrounded the town. Allied Units. On Dragoons D-Day, the Allies landed 94,000 men and suffered just 395 casualties. Numerous units were also replaced by Ostlegionen and Ostbataillone. Home; Blog/News. On 9June, after an attack on the German garrison at Tulle, the 2nd SS Panzer Division hanged about 99 civilians while moving towards northern France during the Tulle massacre. The Panther was a formidable opponent superior to . 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. 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. Shortly after their capture, work began to repair the port facilities at Toulon and Marseille. Troubridge would provide air and naval gunfire support. Courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command. [21], Although the Germans expected another Allied landing in the Mediterranean, the advancing Red Army and the Allied landings in Normandy placed great strains on German resources, so little was done to improve the condition of Army Group G, occupying southern France. By 17August, the German counter-attacks had been largely defeated, Saint-Raphal was secured together with a large beachhead along the coastline, and mobile forces had linked up with the airborne troops in LeMuy. These views were also shared by some in the American high command, such as Lieutenant General Mark Clark, who advocated for striking across the Adriatic Sea into the Balkans. Finally, the division-size 1st Airborne Task Force was to be dropped behind German lines between Camel and Delta sectors. Displayed here are the main battle/fighting formations; the infantry- and tank divisions and independent tank brigades. 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. Following consolidation of the beachhead, the French forces headed southwest to capture Toulon and Marseille. Looking ahead to the postwar world, Churchill wished to conduct offensives that would slow the progress of the Soviet Red Army while also hurting the German war effort. The French Resistance played a major role in the fighting. A German torpedo boat flotilla based at Genoa, which could have sortied against the Western Task Force, remained in port. Cameron Zinsou is an Instructor of History at High Point University and a PhD Candidate at Mississippi State University. On 19 August, U.S. Navy F6F Hellcats and Royal Navy Seafires, on an armed reconnaissance mission, shot down five enemy bombers near Toulouse, to the west of the Dragoon landing areas. It was part of the Allied campaigns that occupied 1944. [33][34], The landings on Port-Cros and Levant started simultaneously on 14August. 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 remaining 11 divisions were understrength and only one panzer division was left, the 11th. Toulon was protected by a complex of heavy 340 millimetres (13in) gun artillery batteries in mounted turrets. [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. [36], The landings were overwhelmingly successful. To fight the uprising, German units committed numerous atrocities and war crimes against French fighters, as well as civilians, in retaliatory acts. As a result, Wiese planned a major attack for 25August by the 11thPanzer Division and the 198th Infantry Division, together with some ad hoc Luftwaffe battlegroups. Main article: Operation Dragoon order of battle The Western Naval Task Force was formed under the command of Vice Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt to carry the U.S. 6th Army Group, also known as the Southern Group and as Dragoon Force, and created to carry out the Operation under the command of Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers. Operation Dragoon took place on August 15, 1944 just two months after the Allied invasion of Normandy. Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August . Despite the hampered communications, German commanders acted independently to put measures in effect to counter the Allied invasion. The landings on Camel Beach proved more difficult with severe fighting on Camel Red near Saint-Raphal. Of its units, only Lieutenant General Wend von Wietersheim's 11th Panzer Division remained as an effective mobile force, though all but one of its tank battalions had been transferred north. History Page, Engagements and campaigns page, Units Page, Main, Site Map [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. Learning from experiences in Normandy, planners selected landing areas that were devoid of enemy-controlled high ground. Pushing forward, the final plan for Operation Dragoon was approved on July 14, 1944. Operation Dragoon: The Invasion of Southern France. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. Posts: 0 Threads: 0 Joined: Mar 2007 #1. 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. This is the order of battle for the invasion of Iraq during the Iraq War between coalition forces [1] and Iraqi forces supported by Fedayeen Saddam irregulars and others between March 19 and May 1, 2003. Much has been made in the historical record of the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany in early March of 1945. This was a phase of the European Theatre of World War II. 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. They failed to encircle the retreating Germans, but the ensuing battle left the 19th Army badly damaged and in full flight towards the Franco-German border. [48], The Germans started the withdrawal, while the motorized Allied forces broke out from their beachheads and pursued the German units from behind. The main landings were preceded by nighttime paratroop drops and commando beach landings. The only potent unit inside Army Group G was the 11th Panzer Division, which was commanded by Wend von Wietersheim. The operations code name was changed to Dragoon on 27 July to ensure security. 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). This again posed a threat to the German evacuation. [26] Accompanying the operation was a fully mobilized separate detachment called "Task Force Butler", consisting of the bulk of the Allied tanks, tank destroyers, and mechanized infantry. On 18August Neuling's surrounded LXII Corps headquarters attempted an unsuccessful breakout and was finally captured with the rest of the city after some fighting. [46][47] On the night of 17 August one boat attempted to sortie; she ran aground leaving harbour and was scuttled by her crew. (2023, April 5). This included the 340 millimetres (13in) guns taken from the dismantled French battleship Provence. These hard-driving combat troops overcame significant challenges of supply, organization, and communications throughout their four-day operation. ThoughtCo, Apr. For the rest of the day, only small skirmishes occurred between German and Allied forces. Digne was liberated on 18August. In both cities, the Germans were able to destroy or mine portions of the port facilities. 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. The ports were quickly brought back into service, together with the railroad system in southern France. [67][68], During their fighting retreat up the Rhne, the Germans also withdrew their remaining forces from their garrisons in southwestern France. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2014. Naval gunfire ceased as the landing craft headed ashore at 08:00. Landing craft convoys (LCIs and LCTs) staged from Ajaccio, Corsica. This success was, however, short-lived, and the Germans were soon pushed back. MARKET GARDEN -ORDER OF BATTLE 52nd TROOP CARRIER WING Brigadier General Harold L. Clark HQ at COTTESMORE (Station 489) 61st TROOP CARRIER GROUP BARKSTONE HEATH (Station 483) 14th Squadron (3I) 15th Squadron (Y9) 53rd Squadron (3A) 59th Squadron (X5) 313th TROOP CARRIER GROUP FOLKINGHAM (Station 484) 29th Squadron (Z7) 47th Squadron (N3) Troops from the FFI supported the Americans, harassing German troops through the entire battle. A large airborne landing was also planned in the center of the landing zone to quickly seize the high ground overlooking the beaches. The Germans withdrew to the north through the Rhne valley, to establish a stable defense line at Dijon. The Americans then attempted to seize the town that evening but were repelled. [73][74], A significant benefit of Operation Dragoon was the use of the port facilities in southern France, especially the large ports at Marseille and Toulon.
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