Laura Skitt – 15th August 2024 at 2:35pm
Watch: Dr Peter Caddick-Adams, a military historian and defence analyst, speaks about Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon began on 15 August 1944 – which was described by Adolf Hitler as the worst day of his life.
Often referred to as “the other D-Day”, Op Dragoon ran until 14 September 1944 and was a pivotal turning point in the Second World War.
Op Dragoon was a huge and complex operation by land, sea and air that liberated nearly two-thirds of France by linking up with troops from the Normandy invasion on 11 September and pushing the German forces right back to their frontier.
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It also secured the ports of Marseilles and Toulon so Allied troops could flood into France.
This was a bitter blow for Hitler, who during conversations with his generals that were discovered in records written in shorthand, said: “The 15th of August was the worst day of my life.”
Dr Peter Caddick-Adams, a military historian and defence analyst, spoke to BFBS Forces News about Operation Dragoon, a largely French/American operation with support from countries including the UK and Canada.
He said: “It set the victory over Germany firmly on its way – and the end of the Second World War couldn’t really have been achieved without Operation Dragoon.
“This is the D-Day that you’ve never heard of.
“Originally there was planned to be two invasions of France on the same day – in Normandy and on the south coast of France along the Riviera.
“It was found that we didn’t have enough landing craft to do both at the same time simultaneously.”
It also didn’t help that Winston Churchill was against the idea and tried to cancel the operation.
The Prime Minister wanted the Italian campaign to remain dominant and was worried Dragoon would take troops and other resources away from Italy.
However, despite his best efforts, the Americans and French prevailed and Operation Dragoon went ahead.
Initially, the operation was given the codename Anvil, because Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, was originally going to be called Sledgehammer.
The plan was for Germany’s armed forces to be smashed between the hammer and the anvil.
Churchill never changed his opinion about the operation despite its eventual success, as Dr Caddick-Adams explained: “At the last minute Churchill had the name changed to Dragoon and, legend has it, because he felt he was being dragooned into an operation that he didn’t want to undertake.
“But he battled against it… and it does underline the fact that Winston was brilliant in many ways in terms of strategic insight and decision-making, but sometimes he got his strategy disastrously wrong.
“And Churchill never, ever really reconciled himself to the fact that it had been as successful as it was.
“He continued to denigrate it even in his memoirs… and therefore British history is sort of taking its lead from the great man and we don’t give [Op Dragoon] the attention that we should do.”
But that also had something to do with the numbers involved.
Historians often focus their attention on the battles and campaigns where Britain dominates and wins.
The ground troops of Op Dragoon were mainly French and American – with about 250,000 soldiers from each country.
And so due to the UK’s smaller contribution of about 10,000 ground troops, the British involvement often gets overlooked in historical accounts.
However, Britain’s naval contribution was a vital part of the operation’s success.
He said: “Our contribution to the fleet of 250 warships and the merchant fleets and landing craft of another 1,500 ships is absolutely a game changer, and those have already done Normandy.
“So we dominate the fleet.
“We play a much smaller role on land, but we provide an awful lot in the air, the 2,000 aircraft that are involved.
“And we field seven small aircraft carriers.
“We have two today, which are much, much larger admittedly, but that’s just a fraction of our capability.
“So it should be much better known because our contribution in terms of capability is probably as great as the UK Armed Forces today, although not in numerical terms.
“We achieved great, great things with a tiny amount of people.”
By 11 September, the south of France had been liberated.
This success was achieved well ahead of the anticipated deadlines by the Allied planners.
Plus, there was an unexpected bonus Dr Caddick-Adams says no one expected, saying: “We cleared the ports of Marseilles and Toulon – which are enormous ports – at a time when we didn’t have any large ports working for us.
“Places like Cherbourg and Le Havre had been sabotaged, so effectively we couldn’t use them and we were using one artificial harbour at Arromanches and the beaches.
“So all of a sudden, we gained logistic heft that we desperately needed.”
Dr Caddick-Adams believes Op Dragoon and its crucial role in bringing about the end of the Second World War in May 1945 deserves more attention.
Just 10 weeks after D-Day and with fewer resources, Op Dragoon achieved the liberation of the south of France and put pressure on Hitler by inflicting heavy casualties on the German forces, forcing them to retreat.