Showing Operation Dragoon: The Allied Invasion of the South of France by William B. Breuer

From inside cover. This is the full dramatic story of the largest operation of its kind in the European war: the Allied seaborne and airborne assault on Nazi occupied Southern France, involving 1000 ships, 3000 aircraft, and eventually a million troops. By August 1944, Operation Dragoon, the proposed Allied invasion of the French Mediterranean coast, had been embroiled in controversy for months. Originally scheduled to coincide with the June 6 Normandy landings, Dragoon came within a hairsbreadth of being cancelled at the last moment due to bitter disputes at the highest American and British command levels. To this day, Operation Dragoon remains controversial. General Eisenhower thought it vital to the final defeat of Germany; General Mark Clark and Winston Churchill believed it a major blunder resulting in much of Eastern Europe falling behind the Iron Curtain.