194415 August 1944 · Var coast, Provence

Operation Dragoon: the landings in Provence

Landing craft unloading trucks and supplies on the beach at Fréjus, August 1944 — Archival image: United States Navy. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ten weeks after D-Day, American and French forces came ashore between Cavalaire and Saint-Raphaël, with paratroops dropped inland around Le Muy. General de Lattre's French army, largely raised in North and West Africa, took Toulon and Marseille by 28 August, weeks ahead of plan, and the Allies drove north up the Rhône. The African soldiers' part was long left out of France's memory of the liberation.

Sites

Site 1: Dramont beach, Saint-RaphaëlA landing craft and memorial on one of the American landing beaches.Map ↗
Site 2: Rhône American Cemetery, DraguignanThe graves of Americans killed in the campaign in southern France.Map ↗
Site 3: Mémorial du débarquement et de la libération en Provence, Mont Faron, ToulonMuseum above Toulon on the landings and the liberation of the south.Map ↗

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