After the Allied forces landed in Normandy, in order to invade the German mainland as soon as possible, they launched the "Dragoon Operation". "At the same time, the three paratrooper divisions that were almost completely annihilated in the Normandy area were also replenished, and in order to be ashamed, the Allied commander-in-chief had a bold plan, wasn't the German army frantically retreating to Belgium and the Ardennes Forest? Then I will first land in the south of France, go directly to Belgium, and take the lead in seizing the main bridge over the Rhine with paratroopers, so that all the German troops who retreated to Belgium and the Ardennes Forest will be dumplings by the Allies.

Eisenhower estimated that the German army in these two areas was about 500,000 to 700,000, but in reality? Here are 1 million German troops transferred from the Soviet front, plus about 700,000 from the rest of the European Union, and about 500,000 from France, which means that Limer has assembled 2.3 million elite German troops in the Ardennes Forest.

In southern Italy, there were 23 German divisions originally garrisoned, 25 divisions reinforced by the European Union, and 10 disgruntled divisions retreated from Normandy, and 68 elite German divisions in northern Italy, including eight armored divisions, with a supplementary strength of 200,000 Italian SS troops, and a total strength of 1.2 million troops.

Germany already bordered Italy, and the Allies had not been able to bomb the German mainland railway system in the early stage, so before the Allies began to log in, Limer ordered some tanks produced by Germany and the European Union this month to give priority to replenishing the German troops in northern Italy, because the German troops here were Limer's left hooks. Not having enough armor is definitely not going to work.

By 6 August, all the German forces in northern Italy had been replenished, and training was being intensified to make final preparations for the next strategic decisive battle, but the Allies were at a loss to know all this, and Eisenhower, as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, only found the situation of the German army very strange.

What worries Eisenhower the most is that many German elite troops have disappeared out of thin air, no matter how their spies search, they can't find the whereabouts of these German elite troops, and the war has been going on until now, and Eisenhower can't help but stop fighting. More than two million Allied troops successfully landed in France. More than 10,000 planes, more than 10,000 tanks, such a powerful force made Eisenhower believe that in the face of absolute power. All intrigues and tricks are scum.

Is it really what Eisenhower thought? Absolute power depends on the time. Two months ago. The Allies were indeed absolute power against Germany in France, and two months later, it can be said that it was almost the same. The Germans had surpassed the Allies in terms of strength, but in terms of the number of tanks and aircraft, you must know that the ratio of the Germans to the Allies in battle was almost 1; 2。

In other words, the Allies needed more than twice as many troops to outmaneuver the Germans. The bloody battle of Caen is the best proof of this.

The operation was originally to be carried out at the same time as the Battle of Normandy, and the attack was on the French Riviera. However, due to the lack of sufficient landing ships, Eisenhower had to postpone it for more than two months. The date of the attack was set for August 15, 1941.

During the planning phase, the operation was codenamed Operation "Anvil" as a complement to Operation Sledgehammer, which was the code name for the invasion of Normandy at the time. The two programs were subsequently renamed, with the latter becoming Operation Overlord and the former renamed Operation Dragoon.

An apocryphal story that claims the name was created by Winston? Churchill suggested that he was against the plan and claimed to have been "used for mutilation" to accept it. In reality, however, the operation was codenamed after a city called Dragignan near the invasion area.

Churchill considered Operation Dragoon to be a waste of resources, throwing it into the Balkans, where the oil producing regions were invaded, and then possibly advancing on other Eastern European countries. In addition to further restricting Germany's access to much-needed oil, it would also allow Western countries to better position themselves in peacetime after World War II and defend themselves against the Soviet Red Army by liberating areas occupied by the Germans.

The original plan was conceived as a force consisting of Free French and American troops to capture Toulon and later Marseille, with subsequent revisions to include Saint-Tropez. However, there was a clash with British military personnel who opposed the landing and believed that troops and equipment should be sent to the Middle East - while American military personnel were in favor of the attack. This is part of a larger Anglo-American strategic divide.

After the Normandy landings in June 1941, it became clear that the Allies had to acquire more port facilities along the French coast. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied Supreme Commander in Europe, had the port of Marseille in southern France as the target of this strategy, but he was still unsure of Operation Dragoon until he was satisfied with the results of the Norman-land landing.

Because of two events, the scales were inclined in favor of Operation Dragoon: the eventual fall of Rome in early June, coupled with the successful Operation Cobra, led to a breakthrough from the Normandy pocket. At the end of July. The D-Day of Operation Dragoon was set for August 15, 1941. Final approval is given within a short period of time.

The U.S. 6th Army, also known as Army Group South and Dragoons, was led by Jacob ? Lawx? Under the command of Lieutenant General Devers, the Dragoons were organized in Corsica and actively engaged from 1 August 1941 to merge French and American forces in order to plan the planned invasion of southern France.

At first the army group was subordinate to the Supreme Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (Allied Headquarters), under the command of Henry ? Maitland? Commanded by Sir Wilson, he was also the Supreme Commander of the Mediterranean Theater. A month after the invasion, command was transferred to the High Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, under the command of American General Dwight Brown? David. Commanded by Eisenhower and also the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front. Task Force 88 was also active in August in support of the landing operation.

The plan of action of the airborne contingent "Dragoons" was carried out during the offensive campaign in southern France.

At that time, the Normandy landing plan was codenamed the "Overlord" campaign plan and had been identified as the main attack plan, while the southern French landing plan was codenamed the "Dragoon" campaign plan and was determined as an auxiliary attack plan for the Normandy landing. The purpose of implementing the "Dragoon" campaign plan was to respond to the landing force in Normandy, first clear out the German troops in southern France, and capture the port of Marseille, the largest seaport in France, so that it could not only provide logistical supplies to the Allied forces in the European theater, but also attack from south to north by taking advantage of the situation, forming a north-south flank attack on the German troops in France.

According to the decision of the Tehran Conference, the Normandy landings and the southern French landings should be carried out simultaneously. Later, due to the huge scale of the Normandy landing plan, in order to ensure its implementation, it was necessary to prepare a large number of sea and air transports, such as launching a landing campaign at the army group level in southern France at the same time, and it was difficult to raise so many ships and planes for a while. As a result, the implementation of the "Dragoon" landing plan was postponed until August 1941, two months after the Normandy landings. (To be continued......)

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