Operation Dragoon 75th Anniversary Commemoration at the WWII Memorial
August 15, 2019 @ 11:30AM — 12:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
A brief ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Southern France.
On Thursday, August 15th at 11:30 a.m., the Friends of the National World War II Memorial will hold a brief ceremony and wreath presentation to mark the 75th anniversary of Operation Dragoon.
On August 15, 1944, Allied troops initiated a successful, yet often overlooked, amphibious invasion in Southern France to divide and smash the nation’s German occupiers, a mission codenamed Operation Dragoon.
Originally planning an assault on Southern France to occur in tandem with the Normandy landings, quarreling Allied leaders chose to postpone the action, focusing manpower on the D-Day invasion. Instead, Operation Dragoon, a “second D-Day” in France, was launched later that summer on August 15, when American troops stormed the beaches of the French Riviera. After securing their beachhead, American forces swiftly pushed north in pursuit of the retreating Germans, while a French army captured the key port cities of Toulon and Marseille. By mid-September, Operation Dragoon came to an end when its troops linked up with Allied forces from Normandy near Dijon, a full two months ahead of schedule. The operation’s resounding success enabled the Allies to prepare to push deeper into German territory itself. To some of the men who served, the welcoming countryside and comparatively limited German resistance gave Operation Dragoon the nickname of the “Champagne Campaign.”
During the August 15th ceremony at the World War II Memorial, WWII veterans and representatives of our Allied Nations will present wreaths at the Atlantic Arch of the Memorial in remembrance of the nearly 26,000 Allies killed or wounded during Operation Dragoon.
If you are a World War II veteran, or know of one, who would like to participate in the
Operation Dragoon 75th Anniversary Commemoration at the Memorial,
please email hrotondi@wwiimemorialfriends.org!
We hope you'll join us on August 15th at the WWII Memorial!
The Friends of the National World War II Memorial's WWII 75th Anniversary Commemoration is generously sponsored by AT&T.
Generous support has also been provided by the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation and Worthington Industries.