Operation Dragoon: United States Army Europe, First (France), Collective Security,Operation Sledgehammer, Invasion of Normandy, Overlord

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, with a follow-up force made up primarily of the French First Army. Despite being a large and complex military operation with a well executed amphibious and airborne component, Operation Dragoon still remains largely unknown to this day. During the planning stages, the operation was known as Anvil, to complement Operation Sledgehammer, which was at that time the codename for the invasion of Normandy. Subsequently both plans were renamed, the latter becoming Operation Overlord, the former becoming Operation Dragoon. An apocryphal story claimed that the name was picked by Winston Churchill, who was opposed to the plan, and claimed to having been "dragooned" into accepting it. However, in reality it is thought the name for the operation was taken from a city near the invasion site named Draguignan (see "Landings" map below).