Operation Dragoon
Background
Dragoon Facts
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| Our Other Military Sites |
| World War II |
| Operation Barbarossa 1941 German Invasion of Russia |
| Operation Citadel 1943 The Battle of Kursk |
| Operation Dragoon 1944 Invasion of southern France |
| Operation Varsity 1945 Crossing the Rhine |
| Invasions That Never Were |
| Operation Sealion 1940 German invasion of England |
| Operation Olympic 1945 US invasion of southern Japan |
| Operation Coronet 1946 US invasion of northern Japan |
| Special Forces |
| Operation Entebbe 1976 Entebbe Airport Rescue |
| Operation Nimrod 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege |
| British Cold War Operations |
| Operation Musketeer 1956 Suez Crisis |
| Operation Corporate 1982 Falklands War |
| Operation Black Buck 1982 Vulcan raids on Port Stanley |
| Operation Granby 1990-91 Persian Gulf |
| British Post Cold War |
| Operation Herrick 2002- Afghanistan |
| Operation Dragoon > Background |
Background to Operation Dragoon
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The Germans then occupied all of Northern and Western France, including the entire English Channel and Atlantic coasts, but left the Southern part of the country unoccupied and under control of the Vichy government. However, as the war began to turn against Germany, the Germans began to doubt the loyalty of the Vichy government had thus occupied the remaining parts of France in late 1942 after the French colonies in Northwest Africa had fallen to the Allied invasion of Operation Torch.
In 1943, the war situation continued to worsen for Germany. On the Eastern Front, they were defeated at Stalingrad (Volgograd), and in the Battle of Kursk. Meanwhile the Western Allies, defeated the Axis forces in North Africa, drove Italy out of the war, after landings in Sicily and the Italian mainland (although the Germans managed to retain control of Northern parts of Italy), and had launched a strategic bombing campaign against German industry and cities.
On June 6th 1944, D-Day, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France in Operation Overlord, an amphibious landing in Normandy. Less than two months later, they were to launch a second invasion of France, this time on the Southern Mediterranean coast, in Operation Dragoon...
