weak book. Maybe it is due to poor translation from French, I skimmed it and set it aside, My Dad parachuted into France and I was looking for information on the invasion, Instead I recommend Operation Dragoon by William Breuer
Dan A I tend to favor the Normandy landings but Operation Dragoon also played an important part on the Western Front.
This amphibious/airborne landing on the Riviera helped to anchor the German forces in their fortress cities in the south and to prevent them from attacking the southern flank or the rear areas as Overlord expanded its beachhead.
The remaining Germans outside those cities were closely pursued to the German border,
After taking Nice, Toulon and the all important port of Marseilles from Army Group G, the USth Army and the Frenchst Army would travel up the Rhone Valley to southern Germany and participate in the crossing of the Rhine.
In the book the author does a good job of describing the preparations of the landings and the logistics of moving the Fleet to the southern shores of France.
The assault and moving off the beach is described concisely, A brief discussion of prior amphibious landings were mentioned, notably North Africa, Sicily and Italy, I don't recall a discussion on how the British were very much against reducing our forces in Italy for this landing or the hard feelings that were generated between the two Allies over this assault.
There are other books that are comprehensive in describing the tactical engagements but where this book shines is its photograpy, More than half the book is photographs and illustrations, Some are black and white but a surprising number are in color, There are quite a few color maps that help acclimate the reader to the beaches and the surrounding towns and countryside,
It shows the leading personalities involved in the landing, and the citizens who were caught between the two sides, There are a number of photos of the ships and landing craft as well, There are also a number of photos detailing the uniforms of the day,
The book is large beingin byin and with heavy glossy paper it would be a worthy addition for anybody interested in the other French landing, There is so little written in my estimation regarding the invasion of southern France, so this book was a real gift, Not only is the book filled with top notch photos and maps, but is very well detailed,
I discovered the availability of this book while doing a Google search on my father's unit, theth Engineers, and was so surprised to find one that dealt with "my VI Corps Engineers".
Very few books cover the amphibious engineers, and very few cover them this comprehensively,
I am sure this book will be a valuable tool as I write my book on theth,th,th andth Engineers, Several of "my vets" saw the book at our latest reunion in, and wanted to know how and where they could purchase one, They were certainly impressed with the content,
Many thanks to the author, I am sure this book will remain one of the favorites in my ETO collection, Two thumbs up!!
Marion Chard
Proud daughter of Walter Monday Poniedzialek
th Combat Engineer WWII An excellent book covering an invasion that know one wanted.
Churhchill tried to have it cancelled so many times and he never got his way,
This book is chock full of photo's chart's and drawing's it gives the reader a thorought view of the invasion, From army group level down to division levels, The Book gives back round on the Free French Army and the US Army,
It is a well planned book, The author gives a lot of information about the "other" invasion of France in WWII which heretofore has received scant attention, An enjoyable read and well researched, the author details unit by unit information for each of the participants and the roles they played before and during the invasion, Also a wealth of photographs adds to the value of this book, I highly recommend it. A really good pictorial coverage of the landings in the south of France with a great collection of illustrative material: photos, maps, artwork, unit badges, etc, Large formatpp. Very well illustrated with maps and contemporary photographs that really make you understand what happened and "take you there", Covers the whole campaign, but mostly the early days and with an understandable focus on the French contribution,
A great start to this subject, However, in what seems to be the French style, there are assertions with no references, No evidence that any of these are wrong, but you need to turn to other books, even boring anglo saxon histories, if you become interested and want detail on this campaign and it has not been given the attention it warrants, in my opinion.
Very good treatment of a neglected campaign in August of, Not a well covered campaign, the southern invasion of France,
The book has a color hardback cover with no dust jacket, nice glossy pages and a mix of black and white and color photos, It has plenty of maps, a few color plates of aircraft, ships and other weapons involved, Photos of the present day sites are mixed in with WWII shots, Nice feature is color scans of the unit crests involved, It include numerous charts, tables and images of historical artifacts from the period, Half the page is generally photos and captions with the remainder being a nice history of the events, Not as many 'action' photos as other books in the series, but still very interesting nonetheless The book itself is a gem withpages of both color and black / white photos and maps supported by most interesting text.
Personally relevant for me as my father led an engineer company to Green Beach on the afternoon of D Day, Operation Dragoon invasion is not readily recognized by most people since it was postponed from Juneth Normandy to Augustth, For anyone who has seen Histoire and Collection books the format of this book will come as no surpire, It has the usual mix of wartime pictures, photographs of original badges and uniforms in colour, clear maps and organizational diagrams, I find this to be a cracking formula,
In this case the book is about Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France, August, This operation is usually mentioned briefly in other titles, so it's great to find a book to describe the operation in detail, And this it does admirably,
The first part of the book is about the preparations, This means earlier amphibious experiences are mentioned, like the Salerno landings and D Day, But also the preparations of participating units are described in detail, This doesn't get limited to Allied units, German preparations get the full treatment also, And off course no book about amphibious operations can get away with not showing all sorts of landing craft and ship, and here every type used is described and illustrated.
Of great interest is the evolution of the Allied plans, You get to see what the initial plans looked like, and how these were changed to become the actual plan used in the operation,
The second part of the book deals with the actual landings, Preceeding the chapters on the actual landings there are chapters on commando and air operations prior to the landings, The airborne landings get their own chapter, which comes next, This chapter goes so far as to show the actual routes flown by the aircraft, and the formations used,
Since Dragoon was a smaller operation than the D Day landings, one division landed on each of the three landing beaches, The book reserves separate chapters for each of the beaches, meaning they each focuss on an Allied division
at a time, For each of the sectors a diagram gives a clear idea of the formations used by the landing craft and ships, and what units were carried,
The final part of the book is about the French troops landing, and then the operations to break out of the beachhead and to capture Toulon and Marseilles.
I really like this title, I do so because it gives a very complete description of events, but also because it is so well illustrated, There's a multitude of great supporting wartime pictures, This is complemented by well produced maps and diagrams, and by photographs of contemporary uniforms being displayed by models, All this combines to make a well rounded, complete title, And I can only recommend this highly to any World War Two enthousiast, The preparation of the Provence landing in Augustwas so precise that, against all odds, everything went exactly as scheduled, Therefore, this book emphasizes on the military planning involving all the units and equipments used, The second part of the book deals with the landing operations themselves and the first three days of fighting in Provence, by US troops, up to the arrival of the Frenchst Army.
The second largest US landing operation in France has never received such a detailed coverage, both in preparation and in execution, An hour by hour account of the fighting by US troops,
More thancolor profiles of aircraft and landing crafts and ships, .
Free Dragoon, August 15, 1944: The Other Invasion Of France Prepared By Null Accessible As Mobi
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