Operation Dragoon (15 August-14 September 1944) was the seaborne invasion of German-occupied southern France by Allied forces (predominantly from the United States and France) in late 1944, during World War II. The Americans took advantage of the German preoccupation with the Battle of Normandy to open a new front in southern France, liberating several cities without much resistance. The Alllied armies captured vital ports at Nice, Cannes, Toulon, and Marseilles, solving their supply problems.
Invasion[]
On 15 August 1944, while the Allies were setting about creating the Falaise Gap in Normandy, landings took place far to the south on France's Mediterranean coast. The original intention had been for these to be mounted at the same time at the same time as D-Day in Normandy, but developments in Italy and the lack of sufficient amphibious shipping had made it necessary to postpone them. Preceded by an airborne drop, General Alexander Patch's US Seventh Army came ashore without much resistance; the southern half of France had a mere ten German divisions, and the coastal defenses were not as strong as in Normandy. Overwhelming Allied air supremacy and powerful naval support also contributed to the Allied success. Dwight D. Eisenhower's prime objective was to secure Marseilles so that it could be used as a resupply port, a task given to Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's French First Army. This force consisted of the French Expeditionary Corps, which had fought in Italy, and further troops from North Africa. Hitler declared the French ports of Marseilles and Toulon festungen ("fortresses"), ordering that they be held to the last; however, both were secured by 28 August. In the meantime, the Americans advanced rapidly northward up the Rhone Valley, assisted by the French Resistance. Many of the Maquis fighters - French draft dodgers who fled to the forests and mountains arround the Massif Central to avoid compulsory labor in Germany - were incorporated into the French First Army. The Allies were also helped by the fact that Hitler allowed for German forces in the south to withdraw as the situation in Normandy was disintegrating. On 11 September, the northern and southern Allied forces met at Sombernon in central France (just west of Dijon), and the Allies had reached the Belfort Gap and Metz by the time that the operation had come to a close on 14 September.
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