The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944

The Allies scored a spectacular victory when they invaded the French Riviera on August 15, 1944,but even today, three and a half decades later, British and American historians continue to debate whether the campaign represented brilliant strategy or meaningless waste of men and materials.

Churchill and the British, explains Alan F. Wilt in this first full-length account of that controversial invasion, consistently opposed the Riviera assault (code named Anvil, later Dragoon). Churchill saw Italy, not southern France, as the logical target for a major offensive action. Barely two weeks before Dragoon was to begin, Churchill tried to divert the assault from the Riviera to the Brittany peninsula. By this time America made all command decisions, however; the Allies launched Dragoon in spite of Churchill’s “many machinations against it.”

Roosevelt and the Americans staunchly favored the Riviera campaign. In their view Dragoon “would engage large numbers of Axis troops… , release numerous French formations for combat on French soil… , open up the possibility of capturing major ports… , and increase pressure even more on Germany from the West.”

In this study, Wilt strikes a balance between the military and the diplomatic aspects of the Riviera campaign. Because he bases his study on German as well as British and American archival sources—including the important Ultra intelligence docu­ments—Wilt presents his subject from the perspective of both the Allied and the Axis powers. He describes and documents a “spirited exchange between British and American leaders, an amphibious invasion of considerable proportions, a swift allied advance led by colorful, yet competent commanders,” and a German retreat led by capable, imaginative officers.

Alan F. Wilt is Associate Professor of History at Iowa State University.