This week in the War, 14–20 August 1944: Allies invade the South of France

Operation Dragoon: This week in the war, on 15 August 1944, General Patch’s US 7th Army landed on the southern coast of France, between Toulon and Cannes. Parachute troops from the US 1st Airborne dropped further inland in support of the amphibious assault.

General De Lattre de Tassigny’s Free French II Corps disembarked one day later.

Realizing that they were in no position to offer serious opposition, the Germans withdrew north.

Operation Dragoon had been an American proposal and was not favoured by Churchill, who preferred invading the Balkans so that British and American troops would join with the Soviets further to the east. At the 1943 Tehran conference, Stalin was in favour of Operation Dragoon (probably for the same reason that Churchill was opposed).