Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil), known as Débarquement de Provence in French (lit. 'Provence Landing'), was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15 August 1944. Although initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, the June 1944 Allied landing in Normandy, insufficient resources led to the cancellation of the second landing. By July 1944 the landing was reconsidered, as the clogged-up ports in Normandy did not have the capacity to adequately supply the Allied forces. Concurrently, the high command of the French Liberation Army pushed for a revival of the operation, which would involve large numbers of French troops. As a result, the operation was approved in July to be executed in August.
The invasion sought to secure the vital ports on the French Mediterranean coast and increase pressure on the German forces by opening another front. After preliminary commando operations, the US VI Corps landed on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur under the protection of a large naval task force, followed by several divisions of French Army B. They were opposed by the scattered forces of the German Army Group G, which had been weakened by the relocation of its divisions to other fronts and the replacement of its soldiers with third-rate Ostlegionen outfitted with obsolete equipment.
Hindered by Allied air supremacy and a large uprising by the French Resistance, the weak German forces were swiftly defeated. The Germans withdrew to the north through the Rhône valley to establish a stable defense line at Dijon. Allied mobile units overtook the Germans and partially blocked their route at the town of Montélimar. After a battle, the Germans completed their withdrawal from the town. Meanwhile, the French captured the important ports of Marseille and Toulon, and soon put them into operation.
The Germans were unable to hold Dijon and ordered a withdrawal from Southern France. Army Group G retreated further north, pursued by Allied forces. The fighting came to a stop at the Vosges mountains, on the French side of the border with Germany, where Army Group G established a stable defensive line. After meeting with the Allied units from the American Third Army, the Allied forces needed to reorganize and, facing stiffened German resistance, the offensive was halted on 14 September.
The Americans considered Operation Dragoon a success. 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. The captured French ports were put into operation, allowing the Allies to solve their supply problems quickly. The British disagreed with the American assessment due to the weak political impact and lack of movement in Italy.
The idea to invade Southern France came in 1942 from General George Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff. It was supported by Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conference in late 1943. In discussions with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stalin advocated for the operation as an inherent part of the planned invasion of Normandy, preferring to have the Allies in the far west instead of at an alternative landing in the Balkans, which he considered to be in his zone of influence. Marshall insisted that the southern landing be included in the strategic planning, and Roosevelt found cancelling it to be unpalatable.
During planning, the operation was known as "Anvil" to complement Operation Sledgehammer—at the time, the code name for the Normandy invasion. Both plans were later renamed: Sledgehammer to Operation Overlord and Anvil to Operation Dragoon.
Operation Dragoon was controversial from the time it was proposed. The American military leadership and its British counterparts disagreed on the operation. Winston Churchill argued that it would divert military resources from Allied operations in Italy. Instead, he favored an invasion of the oil-producing regions of the Balkans. Churchill reasoned that by attacking the Balkans, the Allies could deny Germany petroleum, forestall the advance of the Red Army, and achieve a superior negotiating position in postwar Europe, all at a stroke.
When first planned, the landings were to take place simultaneously – Overlord in Normandy and Anvil in the south of France. A dual landing was soon recognized as impossible to conduct with the forces available. The expansion of Overlord from a three- to a five-division front required many additional tank landing ships (LSTs), which would have been needed for Anvil. Another Allied amphibious landing, in Italy, at Anzio, had gone badly. All of these led the Allies to postpone Anvil.
After the landing at Normandy, a revival of Anvil became increasingly attractive to Allied planners. The Normandy ports had insufficient capacity to handle Allied supply needs, Operation Chastity, the attempt to build a port in Quiberon Bay, had failed, and French generals under Charles de Gaulle pressed for a direct attack on Southern France with participation of French troops. These factors led to a reconsideration of the plan. Despite Churchill's objections, the operation was authorized by the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff on 14 July, then renamed Dragoon on 1 August. The landing was scheduled for 15 August.
Churchill and his chiefs of staff had opposed Dragoon in favor of reinforcing the campaign in Italy, by capturing Trieste, landing on the Istria peninsula, and moving through the Ljubljana Gap into Austria and Hungary. Then, on 4 August, Churchill proposed that Dragoon (less than two weeks away) should be switched to the coast of Brittany. Eisenhower, supported by Roosevelt, who (with his 1944 election four months away) opposed diverting large forces to the Balkans, stood firm on the agreed plan despite long harangues from Churchill on 5 and 9 August.
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. The Allied planners were cautious, taking heed of lessons learned from the Anzio and Normandy landings. 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 choice for the disembarkation site was an area on the Var coast east of Toulon. A preliminary air campaign was planned to isolate the battlefield and cut the Germans off from reinforcement by destroying several key bridges. A large airborne landing was also planned in the center of the landing zone to quickly seize the high ground overlooking the beaches. Parallel to the invasion, several commando units were to take control of the islands off the coast.
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. Their flanks were to be protected by French, American and Canadian commando units. Within 24 hours, 50,000–60,000 troops and 6,500 vehicles were to be disembarked. The airborne landings would concentrate in an area near Draguignan and Le Muy, with the aim of taking these towns to prevent German counterattacks against the beaches. The bulk of the American force then had to advance quickly to the north along the Rhône, to take Lyon and Dijon and make contact with the Allied forces in northern France. After a successful initial landing, units of the French Army B were to land, given the task of taking the French ports of Toulon and Marseille.
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. Given the advancing Allied forces in northern France, the Germans deemed a realistic defense in the south impossible. Johannes Blaskowitz's Army Group G 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. Blaskowitz was quite aware that his scattered forces would be unable to ward off any serious Allied landing attempt. He planned to withdraw in secret, demolishing the ports, and to proceed in an orderly manner, covered by the 11th Panzer Division. He intended to establish a new defense line at Dijon in central France. German intelligence was aware of the impending Allied landing, and on 13 August, Blaskowitz ordered the 11th Panzer Division to move east of the Rhône, where the landing was expected.