The supporting logistical organizations continued to operate separately, with the Southern Line of Communications supporting the Seventh Army drawing its supplies from the North African Theater of Operations until it merged with the Communications Zone of the European Theater of Operations on 20 November. John D. Bulkeley (commander of the Special Operations Group's Eastern Diversionary Unit, commander of CTG 80.4. Landing memorials Operation Dragoon - TracesOfWar.com Issues of these commenced in late October, and the 3rd Infantry Division managed to amass enough of them to equip all of its infantry battalions. [80][81], The port of Marseille had been subject to extensive demolitions. [46][47] Drawing on experience gained in mounting the Anzio operation, each type of ship was loaded in a specific part of the Naples area: the attack transports, attack cargo ships and Liberty ships in Naples harbor, the LSTs in Nisida, the Landing Craft Infantry (LCIs) in Pozzuoli, and the Landing craft tank (LCTs) in Baiae. [74] This officially marked the end of the campaign,[75] but the logistical organizations remained separate. The planners therefore looked further afield, to a series of beaches around Cavalaire-sur-Mer, Saint-Tropez and Saint-Raphal. [102], Improvisation was called for. The port was small compared to Marseille, with a prewar capacity of 7,000 long tons (7,100t) of cargo, but German demolitions were not as extensive. Starting in October supplies were flown directly to Orly Field near Paris. Since they knew the contents of the ship and the location of items on board, this permitted the quick unloading of specific and urgent items. [30] A unit of fire was a somewhat arbitrary measurement for accounting purposes, and was different for each type of ammunition. [32] Each day five units of fire would arrive with the troops landing that day, plus .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1+23 or 3+13 additional units of fire to maintain those already ashore, alternating on successive convoys. Unreliable elements were supposed to be screened out, but in the rush to form the units, this was often ignored. Due to uncertainty of receipts, Seventh Army abandoned rationing after the first two weeks of October and instead instituted a system whereby it advised VI Corps of the available ammunition on a daily basis. A conference on 1 September chaired by Major General A. Arnim White, the chief of staff of the Seventh Army, ruled in Davidson's favor. The weather for the entire trip was favorable and the movement plan was accomplished although the convoy speed of 4-5 knots was too slow for such flat bottomed craft to keep good station. [90], Since the US Navy had not expected to have to undertake the rehabilitation of a port with its own resources, the materials required such as lumber and welding and cutting gases were procured from French naval and civilian sources. The 167th Bakery Company arrived from Italy on 2 September, and took over the operation of two commercial bakeries in Marseille. Nets were placed on the shore where LCTs beached, and cargo was piled onto them. It moved to Dijon on 13 October, where it opened in a former French cavalry barracks, while the site at Les Milles was occupied by the 43rd General Hospital and that in Aix-en-Provence. [46][47] Hewitt's Western Naval Task Force consisted of 885 ships and landing craft that sailed under their own power with 1,375 smaller landing craft carried on board them. [80][81] On 4 September, the rescue and salvage ship USSTackle(ARS-37) was being towed to the fueling and watering berth in the Basin Petrolier by the French tug Provencal when she grazed a buoy and set off a mine that had been attached to it. The goal . The 696th Engineer Petroleum Distribution Company arrived in Berre on 21 September, and extended the pipeline to just north of Avignon. [103] The same unit built a Bailey bridge over the Durance at Meyrargues, which was opened on 17 September. [99] By 3 September, freight was being moved by rail from Camel Beach to Meyrargues, then by truck to Sisteron, and by rail to Grenoble. The 36th Infantry Division landed on Camel Beach (Saint-Raphal) Monuments, Military - Historic - Battlefield Links: en.wikipedia.org On 1 September, the 93rd Evacuation Hospital displaced forward to Rives, where it admitted 127 patients and performed 28 surgical procedures in 12 hours. . [99], Engineers reconnoitered the line in a Stinson L-5 Sentinel aircraft. Devers was sympathetic, but NATOUSA was itself short 10,000 logistical personnel, and Devers's requests to the War Department for additional service units to support the French were denied. The 9th Evacuation Hospital opened in Beaumont-en-Diois, about 30 miles (48km) further down the road to Crest. [2], Plans for Overlord called for a concurrent diversionary effort against southern France, which was codenamed Operation Anvil. [118], Meanwhile, the 1379th Engineer Petroleum Distribution Company took over responsibility for the tanker discharge facilities at Port-de-Bouc and began laying a 6-inch pipeline around the Etang de Berre, running parallel to the 4-inch pipeline. [104], On 15 September, French civilian workers at the Gare de Marseille-Canet who were smoking in a train carrying ammunition for the ground forces, 500-pound (230kg) bombs for the air forces, and chemical warfare material, set off an explosion that killed ten French civilians and ten American servicemen, and started a fire. [80][81] Port operations commenced using the beaches on the northern part of the port. It took place on August 15th 1944. [101] Locomotives were in short supply, though, and by the end of September twelve had been delivered from the US. 1st Airborne Task Force (Allied) - Wikipedia The phrase is mostly used for the Duplex Drive variant of the M4 Sherman medium tank, that was used by the Western Allies during and after the Normandy Landings in June 1944. [126], Receipts rose as the railways were brought into operation, allowing reserves to be built up. A direct Allied invasion of southern France was considered at the Trident Conference in May 1943, but it was regarded as too risky and was passed over in favor of an Allied invasion of Italy. USCG Cutter Duane During WW2 19441945 - Dale Rooks The ships were combat loaded, but in the expectation that there would be heavy fighting, ammunition was loaded on top, and had to be removed to access other stores. By October, the Seventh Army area was filled with civilian and captured German vehicles, often ingeniously repaired or adapted by ordnance units. By 19 August, the situation had become critical. DD tank - Wikipedia [81][90][91] A French contractor offered to assist with repairs immediately, accepting on faith that he would be fairly reimbursed by the US Army. An advance echelon of SOS NATOUSA was organized in Italy and arrived at Dijon on 12 September to control both the Delta Base Section and CONAD. From the landing beaches, the Allies moved out to Nice to the east and Marseilles to the west. Although initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, the Allied landing in Normandy, a lack of available resources led to a cancellation of the second landing.By July 1944 the landing was reconsidered, as . Supplies were supplemented by local purchases, which were estimated to have saved 9,634 measurement tons (10,912m3) of shipping in the final quarter of 1944. To facilitate the advance, engineers repaired bridges, rehabilitated railways, and laid pipelines. This was exacerbated by the retreating Germans gathering up everything they could. [128] Additional shipments were made to cover this. [108], The road network in southern France was extensive, but restricted by bridges, many of which were limited to loads of 5 metric tons (5 long tons) or less. [81] Tonnage unloaded through the ports of southern France increased from 174,500 long tons (177,300t) in August to 326,813 long tons (332,057t) in September, 524,894 long tons (533,317t) in October, and 547,602 long tons (556,389t) in November. The Seventh Army set priorities and controlled road movements. As a result, when Anvil was revived in June, 75 percent of the required supplies for a two-division assault were on hand, although there were critical shortages of engineer, signals and transportation equipment. [91] Consideration was given to using the river to take the pressure of the railways and highways. Efforts to alter the shipping schedules met with mixed success. Landing craft in the water cruise from and towards large ships off shore. [6] [135], The 11th Evacuation Hospital moved from Le Muy to Aspremont, where it admitted 300 patients on its first day of operation. Only a thousand, mostly teenagers and old men, had been hired by 20 August, and only seven thousand French civilians were working for the US forces by mid-September. [27], The Coastal Base Section assumed responsibility for the beaches on 9 September, a week earlier than planned. The advance party established its headquarters in the Astoria Hotel. The Delta beaches were found to have poor exits, and operations were transferred to beaches in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. [40] Brigadier General Harold F. Loomis, the head of the Joint Rearmament Commission (JRC), which had responsibility for rearming French units in North Africa, carefully scrutinized French requests. [123], Soldiers had been landed with the lightest possible packs, and shipments of clothing had been delayed in favor of rations and POL. Most of the Force 163 planners traveled on Hewitt's flagship, USSCatoctin, so they could continue working during the voyage. WW2 heritage: sites to visit | Provence-Alpes-Cte d'Azur Tourism This was the consolidation phase of the beach heads. Major General Paul L. Williams arrived on 16 July and assumed command of the Provisional Troop Carrier Air Division, which was formed for this operation. The railway roundhouses were intact, and thirty serviceable locomotives and around 450 railway cars were found there. About 2,500 US personnel worked at Rognac, along with a battalion of French troops who handled French Army supplies, and 3,000 Italian service troops. [44][45], The primary mounting port for Operation Dragoon was Naples, where 75 merchant ships and 307 landing craft were loaded by the Peninsula Base Section. [19] On arrival, Force 163 was discontinued and Seventh Army officially took over planning. [64], The advance party of the Coastal Base Section arrived on 24 August. "Operation Dragoon" 70th Anniversary Posted on August 17, 2014 | 3 Comments August 15th, 2014 marked the 70th Anniversary of "Operation Dragoon", which was the Allied Invasion in Southern France, and shown in the pictures of the Riviera Beachhead book. [59] By 14 September the beach dumps held 11,740 long tons (11,930t) of subsistence, 8,821 long tons (8,963t) of POL, and 58,488 long tons (59,427t) of ammunition. [69] On 26 September, the Continental Base Section was redesignated the Continental Advance Section (CONAD), effective 1 October. [110], The truck units of the Coastal Base Section were concentrated in Marseille, and by the end of September there were 18 truck companies working the port, of which six were equipped with DUKWs. Another 4-inch pipeline connected the docks with a 1,000 US barrels (120,000L) storage tank for avgas at the airfield at Frjus. [71], The change to CONAD represented a change of role and not just designation; as an advance section, CONAD worked closely with the Seventh Army and retained minimal levels of stocks in its depots, usually a 15day supply. Here we see a group of German POWs marching along one of the landing beaches for Operation Dragoon, having been captured early in the operation. . Faced with the allied breakthrough on the beaches of Cavalaire-sur-Mer, Hitler even said : "This is the darkest day of my life". Due to the Seventh Army's rapid advance, the shipments of civil affairs relief supplies were expedited. The plan had initially planned on the majority of the attack happening on the beaches so there was a shortage of fuel and travel equipment for the land attack. Quick thinking by Lieutenant Colonel George F. Glass, the Coastal Base Section ammunition officer, prevented the fire from reaching a nearby area where 105 mm ammunition was loaded. Other cranes were repaired or brought from the beaches. There was a general shortage of cargo nets owing to too many ships being unloaded at once, too few trucks to move the cargo to the dumps, and insufficient personnel to unload the cargo at the dump sites. The cancellation of Anvil in April left 64 ships in the Mediterranean with half their cargo capacity taken up with flatted Anvil supplies. At 1930 hours on the evening of August 13 th 1944 the first assault convoy got underway for France. [131], The 52nd, 56th and 58th Medical Battalions landed on 15 August to supplement the organic medical units of the divisions. On 25 September the pipeline reached the Durance, where the 697th ran it over a 1,480-foot (450m) timber trestle bridge. Medical supply was handled by the 7th Medical Depot Company, which followed the Seventh Army's advance. [36], The effort to produce the required service units was unsuccessful, and by the end of June some forty logistical units were yet to be activated. Around this time, neuropsychiatric (combat fatigue) cases began to rise, and with the deteriorating weather trench foot also started to become a problem. World War II: Operation Dragoon Overview (1944) - ThoughtCo In addition to the beaches and ports, some were engaged in shuttle operations to cover gaps in the railway network, mainly caused by the demolition of bridges. [1] Nonetheless, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff continued to consider the operation, as resources had accumulated in the North African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA), including a large French Army that was being raised and equipped in North Africa. Forces were operating 100 miles (160km) from the beaches, and VI Corps was using 100,000 US gallons (380,000L) of fuel a day, but only 11,000 US gallons (42,000L) remained in the beach dumps. On 14 June, the War Department was forced to concede that the US Army would have to provide logistical support to the French, but only when deployed together with US forces under US command. He joined in July as staff officer, plans, with the Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force, in time to make the landing in southern France, near St. Malo, as a member of Navy Task Force 125 on 29 August 1944. The Rhne flooded and burst its banks in late October, and the pipe was floated into position. Anvil's objectives were the seizure of the ports of Marseille and Toulon, followed by a drive northward up the Rhone valley to link up with the Overlord forces. Operation Dragoon. Mines had been used prodigiously; some 172 were removed from the main basin. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Capt. By the end of March some service units were ready for deployment to Italy, where they came under the CEF or Base 901, which was now commanded by Gnral de brigade Jean Gross. To fly them, the three troop carrier wings had 375 glider pilots. The forgotten French D-Day landing in Provence was called Operation Dragoon. This moved the railhead forward to Besancon and Vesoul. [73] The split forced the understaffed Base 901 to also split, with part under Gnral de brigade Georges-Vincent-Andr Granier joining CONAD in Dijon on 12 October. Soft sand also caused problems, and the engineers laid a roadway using logs. Like the infantry divisions, combat engineer regiments were all veterans of at least one amphibious operation; the 36th Combat Engineer Regiment was participating in its fifth. )[116], The 697th Engineer Petroleum Distribution Company arrived on Camel Green on 15 August. Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The fire was eventually brought under control by the 1208th Engineer Composite Fire Fighting Platoon. The Seventh Army also had its own blood service in the form of the 6703rd Blood Transfusion Unit. For a time there was no rifle ammunition in the Seventh Army's depots. Losses of artillery pieces were not as severe, but were keenly felt. Initially the headquarters was located at 370 Via dei Tribunali, Naples, but it moved to the Provincia Building in Piazzetta Duca d'Aosta next to the headquarters of the Peninsula Base Section. It was August 15, 1944, and his unit, the 157th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Division was part of the invasion force for Operation Dragoon, the landings along France's Mediterranean coast. Many soldiers had to subsist on K-rations for extended periods, because fresh meat and produce were unavailable in the first month of the campaign due to a lack of refrigerator cars and trucks. [18] The Seventh Army and Vice Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt's Eighth Fleet headquarters moved to Naples on 8 July. [70] The boundary between the two was the northern boundaries of the French departments of Ain, Rhne, Loire and Allier. By the end of October all infantry divisions had received a full issue of sleeping bags and winter clothing, and 97 percent of their shoe-pacs. [59] As an expedient, cargo was often tipped from the net onto the ground at the dump site, with consequent breakages. [54][56] The beach control groups assumed overall responsibility for the operation of the beaches from Seventh Army on 17 August, one day ahead of schedule. It removed over 61,500 pounds (27,900kg) of explosives from the docks, along with 2,000 Teller mines. [35] When Gnral d'Arme Henri Giraud met with Wilson and Devers on 9 March to discuss the arrangements for Anvil, he ventured the opinion that it would be "a pity to waste excellent combat troops by converting them into service units in which duty they were poor",[36] and expressed the hope that the US Army could supply logistical support to the French forces. On 12 September, the Seventh Army made contact with Allied forces that had landed in Normandy earlier that year as part of Operation . (A large German dump containing 183,000 US gallons (690,000L) of high-octane gasoline and 36,500 US gallons (138,000L) of diesel fuel at Besanon was later captured on 9 September. [104] Trucks still remained the main form of haulage in September though, moving 220,000 long tons (220,000t) of freight compared with 63,000 long tons (64,000t) moved by rail. Operation Dragoon was one of the smoothest amphibious assaults of the war. Reserves of ammunition for American ships were carried by the ammunition ships USSNitro, which came from the United Kingdom, and Mount Baker, which sailed from the United States. The US Navy swept the mines, and the lone sunken vessel blocking the channel was removed. He created three major distribution centers at Nice, Lyon and Marseille. Operation Dragoon - History Learning Site [137], By end of September, US Army hospitals in southern France had admitted 20,775 patients, of whom 160 had died, 8,380 had been evacuated to Italy or North Africa, and 8,525 had been returned to duty, leaving 3,710 in the hospitals. AFHQ rounded up the remainder from ships already in the theater and from British sources. Image Information. (APA-26) off the southern France invasion beaches after discharging its embarked troops, August 15, 1944. . [84][92], Port-de-Bouc became the main port of entry in southern France for POL, supplying seventy percent of Allied requirements. Like the latter, Toulon had been badly damaged by German demolitions and Allied bombing. Seventh Army, took place between Toulon and Cannes. It had 300 acres (120ha) of deep water anchorages, a .mw-parser-output .sfrac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .sfrac.tion,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .tion{display:inline-block;vertical-align:-0.5em;font-size:85%;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .num,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{display:block;line-height:1em;margin:0 0.1em}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{border-top:1px solid}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}3+1/2-mile (5.6km) jetty that protected a harbor with ten basins, and rail facilities capable of handling 350 boxcars per day. The islands also obstructed the approaches to the beaches and the restricted areas where the minesweepers and bombardment ships had to operate. [104] The final link was completed by the 40th Engineer Combat Regiment, which used a Bailey bridge to replace a 91-foot (28m) gap in the bridge over the Buch, and local lumber and steel to replace two other missing spans. Both used reconditioned French passenger cars. This was an important operation with the operational objective of liberating France. It was followed by the 46th General Hospital, which opened at Caserne Vauban near Besanon on 20 September; the 21st General Hospital, which opened in an unfinished French psychiatric hospital at Mirecourt on 21 October; and the 23d General Hospital, which opened at Vittel on 5 November. A Marine successor on the staff of ComNavEu was Colonel Paul D. Sherman. Engineers constructed and improved the roads, bridges and airfields, and signal units laid 2,500 miles (4,000km) of telephone lines. On 2 July, Wilson was ordered to launch Anvil as a three-division assault by 15 August. The Italians were later replaced by 6,000 German POWs, who also operated a large bakery. [50], The Royal Fleet Auxiliary oil tankers RFA A151 and Ennerdale, each carrying 7,000 US barrels (830,000L) of marine diesel oil and 28,000 US barrels (3,300,000L) of fuel oil, accompanied the assault forces. Many had to be detonated in place because the fuses had deteriorated too badly to permit them to be deactivated safely. Enough coal was located to fuel the trains. Troops, vehicles, and equipment line the shore of Alpha Beach near Cavalaire-sur-Mer in southern France during Operation Dragoon. Allied staff officers led by Lt. Gen. Frederick Morgan debated where to pierce the Atlantic Wall, German coastal fortifications extending from Norway to the southwest coast of France. [144][145] Nonetheless, logistical constraints prevented the operational commanders from taking full advantage of the opportunities offered by the German retreat.[146].
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