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Lance does the South of France for the NMBS
Text by LK
During my family holiday in 2007 whilst in the South of France I took advantage to look
at the area surrounding the less well known second invasion of France codenamed “Operation Dragoon” Churchill
argued that Operation Dragoon diverted resources that would have been put to better use in an invasion of the oil producing
regions of the Balkans and then possibly to other Eastern European countries. In addition to further limiting Germany's access
to much needed oil, it would also have better positioned the West for the peace following World War II by liberating these
areas from the German occupation and forestalling the Russian Army. He was thinking about what was to happen after the war
rather than just simply ending it quickly. It is quite ironic that the British and the Americans still have the same problems
today. The recent invasion of Iraq depicts this as the Americans did not think about the consequences of the invasion and
disbanded the Iraqi army whilst the British said they should use them (as they used the Japanese to retain order after the
liberation of Singapore) in helping keep the peace in Iraq.
The area chosen for this was Provence and was to
be carried out on 15th August 1944. In the first days, 250,000 men, and thousands
of tons of equipment, were landed on the beaches between Toulon and Cannes. The overall
armada consisted of 2000 ships, 3 American divisions (36th, 45th and 3rd Divisions) and the 1st French Army of General de
Lattre de Tassigny, all under the command of General Alexander Patch of the 7th Allied Army. The 6th American Army Corps of
Major General Lucian Truscott landed the same day.
| Map of Area |
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| Click Map for larger image |
The American troops landed on the 15th and the French on the 16th. Below shows a
picture of Americans landing on the Coast. They are using the small landing craft
and bigger landing craft ships. There is still a landing craft on the edge of one of these beaches near Saint Raphael on the
coast as an memorial to all those who landed.
| Landing Craft |
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| Click picture for larger image |
Picture of a memorial to Colonel Parker and his troops and I am assuming a private memorial to William
Ketchens from the 1st Ranger Battalion who landed at 8.30am on 15/08/1944. This lies at the front of
the landing craft. Unfortunately the inside of craft was not accessible so I could not get a feel of what was probably awful
waiting to get ashore.
| Memorial to Colonel Parker |
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| Click picture for larger image |
| 36th Inf Memorial |
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The Americans had to cross these defended beaches and the defences are still in evidence
today. It is worth noting and sad to point out that all these beaches are now packed with tourists who probably are ignorant
of the sacrifices made on the very beaches by young men so that they can lie in the sun.
| Bunkers |
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| Click for larger image |
| Picture of an artillery or flak emplacement |
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| Click for large image |
THE AIRBORNE DROP
In order to protect the allied landings on the coast of the South of France and to capture the
key roads leading north, an impressive airborne drop was made on the night of the 14th to the 15th August 1944, 25 km behind the
German lines, in three zones around Le Muy. This mission was entrusted to the first Airborne Army, under the command of the
American General Robert T. Frederick. 10,000 Parachutists, mostly Americans, but also the British Second Parachutist Brigade,
and a group of French pathfinders from the First Storm Battalion, jumped into enemy-held territory
To reinforce the paratroopers, close to 500 gliders, both American WACO type and English HORSA,
left from Italy towed by C 47 transport planes and brought in heavy equipment, jeeps and supplies, to help the paratroopers
hold the strategic and vital town of Le Muy. In essence this was the important crossroads for all roads north
| Map of the Drop Zone |
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| Click to enlarge |
The landing zones were relatively clear
in 1944 but are (now like most non-built up area’s) covered in vines producing the excellent local wines or have been
replanted with trees. Below is a picture of one of the landing zones.
The first town to be liberated in Southern France was La Motte which is a very small
and quiet town, but its holds its place in history proudly.
| Landing Zone at Le Motte |
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| Click for larger image |
| Memorials to the fallen |
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The British,
French & American Paratroopers moved on to capture the key crossroads at “Le Muy”. There is an excellent free
museum dedicated to the operation here.
Opening hours are
Tuesday 3pm-7pm
Weds-Sat 9am-12noon & 3pm-7pm
Sun 9am-1pm
There
is an excellent letter written by one of the British Officers who tried to get the Germans to surrender in the museum—worth
the visit just in itself. There are the usual exhibits but it was still excellent because it was about the liberation of the
town itself rather than the overall operation. It was also just about the paratroopers.
Every year on 15th August (liberation day) they have a festival and the guest of honour is one of
the surviving paratroopers. Put up at the towns expense. It was really nice to hear they take it so seriously and are still
extremely grateful to those young lads who fought and died here so many years ago.
| Liberation Museum at Le Muy |
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Click HERE for the Link to the Museum "Le Muy"
The historic town of Draguignan was liberated by American paratroopers in conjunction with the local French resistance group
who captured the German general in charge of their defences in Southern France.
| Draguignan Memorial |
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The American Rhone Military cemetery is there as well. As usual they brought a lot of their dead
from far and wide to be buried here. There lots of airmen who had been shot down here from 1943 onwards plus some of the lads
who fought here. They are not all here because American families have the right to bring their dead sons home to be buried
locally. One other thing though, is that they have an excellent collection of books in their office, which gave a lot of background
information to and of the invasion itself. So much so that copies of the actual field reports written by soldiers are bound
in volumes-excellent reading for those wanting to know more.
There is also a copper type plaque which gives the movement of troops from the invasion to the
link up with the rest of the allies up north
Weblink to Rhone American Cemetery (click here)
The British and Commonwealth
war dead are buried at Mazargues
War Cemetery in Marseilles. As is the case with the CWGC there is a mixture of First and Second war graves.
But unusually there are a lot of Chinese, Indian and Egyptian troops buried here as well.
Marseilles was the Base of the Indian troops in France during the 1914-18 war; and throughout the War the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy, British troops and
Labour units worked in the port or passed through it. Four of the town cemeteries were used, in the main, for the burial of
officers and men of the Commonwealth forces who died at Marseilles. At ST. PIERRE CEMETERY, on the East side of the town, the bodies of Hindu soldiers and labourers were
cremated in 1914-16. LE CANET OLD CEMETERY and LE CANET NEW CEMETERY, on the North side, were
in 1917-19 the places of burial of Indian soldiers and Indian, Egyptian and Chinese labourers. MAZARGUES CEMETERY, on the
South-East side, was used less in the War; but before the Armistice an Extension was made, to which were removed, a little
later, the bodies or ashes from the four Town cemeteries and from PORT ST. LOUIS-DU-RHONE COMMUNAL CEMETERY.
There are now 1,487, 1914-18 and 267, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. The cemetery covers an of 9,021 square
metres.
| MAZARGUES WAR CEMETERY, MARSEILLES |
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| CWGC site |
MAZARGUES WAR CEMETERY, MARSEILLES (click for website)
The operation was a phenomenal success. Within two weeks the Allies had captured 57,000
prisoners and opened the major ports of Toulon and Marseille at a cost of less than 7,000 casualties. Patch's Seventh Army DRAGOON forces
then advanced nearly 400 miles north up the Rhone River Valley toward
Lyon and Dijon, capturing Lyon on
3 September. In less than one month, on 11 September, they linked up with Patton's Third Army west of Dijon, creating
a solid wall of Allied forces stretching from Antwerp, Holland to
the Swiss border. Four days later, DRAGOON forces were reorganized into the 6th Army Group, under the command of Lt. Gen.
Jacob L. Devers, reinforcing Eisenhower's force in Europe to three full army groups.
Aftermath and Analysis of DRAGOON
Measured against its military objectives, Operation DRAGOON was an outstanding success.
Gen. Patch's Seventh U.S. Army annihilated Hitler’s 19th Army, captured over 100,000 German prisoners, liberated the
southern two thirds of France and linked up with the Normandy invasion forces, all within thirty days. Until the port of
Antwerp was opened in November 1944, the ports of southern France were
the source of more than one-third of Allied supplies in Europe.
But Allied resources earmarked for Italian operations, already considered of secondary
importance, steadily diminished after DRAGOON. The 15 August operation stripped seven first-class divisions, three American
and four French, from Italy, confirming that Italy was
a holding action of little importance. Churchill always believed Operation DRAGOON was a blunder that shifted the Allied focus
away from the Mediterranean, thereby setting the stage for Soviet post-war domination of Eastern
Europe.
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