Operation Dragoon: The Invasion of Southern France

There are many forgotten operations that occurred in the Second World War but none more so than the invasion of southern France, also known as Operation Dragoon. Overshadowed by D-Day or Operation Overlord in Normandy, Operation Dragoon opened up ports to the Allies in the Mediterranean that was instrumental in the capturing of France from the Axis. A successful joint operation between many Allied nations such as the UK, US, Canada, Free France, Greece, and Poland, it still marked the beginning of in-fighting amongst the Allies for the direction of the war, and what the post-war world would look like. This article will explore the unfolding of the operation and its aftermath.

The Soviets were desperate for a second front against the Germans in Europe in order to distract and divert Axis forces away from the Eastern Front and relieving the pressure on Soviet forces. While this second front against the Axis in Europe was agreed by the rest of the allied forces, there was debate as to where. George Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff first floated the idea in 1942 of an operation targeting southern France once the North Africa campaign turned in favor of the Allies but the British, specifically Winston Churchill disagreed. Churchill felt that the operation was too soon and in the wrong place. He favored an operation targeting the Balkans that would seize oil operations away from the Axis but Soviet premier Josef Stalin opposed this idea, believing that the Balkans should be in the Soviet sphere of influence, correctly surmising that Churchill was trying to block Soviet asset seizure in the aftermath of the war. Additionally, once the Allies invaded Sicily and then shortly after, mainland Italy, Churchill felt an invasion of southern France would divert precious resources away from a quickly stalling fight up the spine of Italy towards Rome. Despite the disagreements, in 1944 Allied planners moved forward with drafting up a battle plan targeting Toulon and Marseille, with the operation occurring simultaneously with an invasion of Normandy. Originally these two operations were called Sledgehammer (Normandy) and Anvil (Southern France) but military planners realized quickly that the logistics and man power required to pull off two amphibious operations of the size required made the current plan impossible. So, Operation Sledgehammer, now renamed Overlord, was prioritized over Anvil, now renamed Dragoon. Dragoon was rescheduled to occur two months after Overlord, on 15 August 1944 and approved by Allied military command. Churchill pushed to have the invasion rerouted to northern Italy near Trieste that would both relieve Allied forces in Italy and would give an avenue for the Allies to push into Austria and Hungary but US President Franklin Roosevelt and Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D Eisenhower disagreed, keeping the landings focused on southern France.

The landing was planned to avoid some mistakes experienced by the Allies at previous European landings like Anzio and Normandy, specifically avoiding locations that could be easily reinforced or contained high ground that could be used by Axis defenders. Prior to the landings, the allies would target the area around the landing sites with a preliminary arial/naval bombardment, destroying bridges and other hard targets to limit German reinforcements and isolate the already positioned defenders, followed up by airborne soldiers dropping behind the landing sites to cause chaos and capture rear sites of military and industrial value. Commando units from the American, Canadian, British, and Free French armies would also be inserted ahead of the invasion to link up with French Resistance units or to capture key locations prior to the full force landing. Finally, the actual amphibious invasion would be made up of American, Canadian, British, Polish, Free French, French Colonial, and Greek soldiers.

The Germans were aware that the Allies would probably attack occupied France from the Mediterranean but were powerless to stop it. The Germans at this time were losing significant ground to the Allies in the north of France and the Soviets in the east, so the defenders along the southern French coast, Army Group G, were not reinforced or resupplied. In fact, two thirds of Group G’s armor reserves had been sent north to slow the Allied Normandy breakout campaign, and only 30,000 out of the 200,000+ Group G were in the invasion area. While the German defense of southern France was deemed impossible by high command, a withdrawal was also out of the question due to recent political circumstances, chiefly the recent assassination attempt on Hitler’s life. The state of Group G was so poor that most divisions stationed in the south of France didn’t even have their own transportation or mechanized corps, were poorly motivated and underequipped with basic warfighting necessities, or had large portions of conscript and volunteer forces from occupied countries and eastern territories such as Russia, Poland, the Yugoslav, and Czechoslovakia making up their ranks. The international aspect to these divisions made communication difficult and cohesion was low. The armored units that did remain with Group G consisted of Eastern Front veterans so they were very experienced but also exhausted understrength. To compensate for these deficiencies, the Germans had built up their static defenses with emplacements, beach obstacles, and minefields to slow any Allied invasion. Lastly, the Germans were being harassed by French Resistance in the area, complicating any logistics or communications efforts between German High Command and Group G. In the event of a full invasion, Group G commander, Johannes Blaskowitz, planned to withdrawal in secret to central France, destroying ports and other militarily valuable sites on the way north.

In the early hours of D-day, August 15th, Commando, glider and airborne soldiers drop into southern France. Similar to Overlord, the deployment of paratroopers did not go according to plan. Only 40% of Allied paratroopers land near their drop zones due to heavy fog obscuring the area but this actually created an advantage for the Allies. Due to the scattered drop, the Germans thought the airborne deployment was much larger than in reality, confusing and limiting their response effectiveness. This kept casualties low and allows these airborne and commando units to capture their objectives, surround German positions, and link up with resistance cells. The main Allied concern however was not the rear positions but the naval and land mine network laid by the Germans so the Allies deployed substantial mine clearing troops and a new technology, radio-controlled “Apex” drone boats packed with explosives designed to detonate naval mines. While there are issues with the Apex boats, the mine sweeping efforts were successful, allowing the assembled naval group of over 900 ships to begin their bombardment. Once the targets were softened up, the landing of infantry began at three main landing spots around 2pm. German resistance was essentially non-existent in the majority of areas, with most positions destroyed by the pre-invasion bombardment. Most Allied casualties were caused by mines instead of gunfire. The exception to this was a beachhead codenamed “Camel Red.” Natural terrain made this beachhead, near the town of Frejus, more defensible and the Germans reinforced the area with coastal artillery, pillboxes, and anti-aircraft/tank guns. The naval minesweeping units sent to clear the way before landing were forced back by heavy fire and the pre-invasion bombardment is ineffective. The decision is made to divert forces landing at “Camel Red” and instead land at “Camel Green,” a nearby beachhead that had been successfully cleared. This delays the capture of the airfield at Frejus, but otherwise saves Allied lives.

Allied infantry units quickly broke out of the beachhead and linked up with paratroopers, resistance cells, and commando units to seize objectives at a rapid pace. The Germans did not react fast enough to the invasion and when they finally counterattack on August 19th, their attack is repelled, forcing the Germans to rapidly withdrawal. Free French forces move so rapidly that they toss out the previous agreed plan of seizing Marseille and Toulon one by one and instead attack both cities at the same time. The local population of both cities rise up and assist the Allied soldiers in capturing the towns and overwhelming the German garrisons, with Toulon falling to the Allies on August 26th and Marseille falling on August 28th. Although the cities fell faster than expected and 28,000 German soldiers were captured, the French suffered 5,000 casualties in the fighting. Meanwhile, American forces chased the retreating Germans and significant fighting occurred around the town of Montelimar, with German counterattacks being marginally successful. The Americans were slowed to a halt in some areas or pushed back in others, which allowed the Germans to successfully withdrawal a large portion of Group G to the north, ending Operation Dragoon.

Dragoon was wildly successful and although had some snags, it gave the Allies a strong foothold in the south of France with ports large enough to handle a rapid injection of warfighting equipment and supplies necessary to support the Allied liberation of France and their advance to Germany’s western border. By the war’s end, 25% of all Allied supplies in western Europe entered through the southern French ports captured by Dragoon. Dwight D. Eisenhower took a highly positive view of Dragoon, stating that “there was no development of that period which added more decisively to our advantages…than did this secondary attack coming up the Rhone Valley.” However, whilst Dragoon’s success cannot be denied, its overall place in the wider war effort to defeat the Nazis is hotly debated. Winston Churchill’s objections have been notated above but other Allied generals and historians feel the operation was irrelevant or a “sideshow” in the wider war. British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery even stated that if the soldiers from Dragoon had been landing in Normandy instead to assist the breakout campaign, Allied forces could have captured Berlin ahead of the Soviets. This is discarded by most historians but there are legitimate criticisms of Dragoon, namely that the failure to destroy Group G in entirety allowed for the Germans to have more fighting men to resist the Allied advance west. Some historians and figures, chiefly Winston Churchill, have even claimed that the Cold War would have looked different if American and British invaded the Balkans for Dragoon, instead of allowing Soviet troops unfettered control and eventual takeover in the post-war world.