Dragoon

Everyone knows D-Day, literally everyone, but there was another, similar and no less significant landing in the South of France on the 14th of August, it was known as Operation Dragoon. It lacked the widespread international support as D-Day (Greek, Australian, New Zealander, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, Czech, Luxembourgish and Norwegian troops took part in D-Day), but was still an important battle.

Dragoon lacked the staggering success of Juno Beach, or the abysmal failure of Omaha Beach, and as such, remains largely unknown to this day. The allies lost 130,000 men, mostly French, whereas the Germans lost a meagre 7,000. Despite the heavy cost in men, the territorial gains by the allies were invaluable.

American soldiers coming ashore.