The Invasion
In the early morning hours of August 15, the Allied fleet with its five battleships began a bombardment of German positions on and behind the beaches of Var, in southeastern France. All five battleships were obsolete in terms of taking a place in a battle line, but for the purpose of shore bombardment they were more than adequate. The German positions were pounded for several hours, supported by air attacks launched from Corsica and Sardinia. Cruisers joined in the naval shelling, positioning themselves closer inshore to cover the landings. Though the invasion fleet was not as large in number of ships as that of D-Day in Normandy, it possessed similar firepower.
At 8 AM the landing craft approached the beaches, carrying three divisions of the VI Corps. On each flank, commandos from Canada, the United States, and France established blocking positions to prevent German reinforcement of the assault area. The western zone of the assault area was at Cavalaire-sur-Mer and was designated Alpha. The easternmost assault area was designated Camel beach, near Saint-Raphael. In the center, at St. Tropez, the beach was named Delta. At both Alpha and Delta the resistance by the Germans was desultory, and the assault was quickly ahead of schedule. At Camel beach the resistance was stiffer.
German heavy weapons, including the feared 88mm guns, inflicted damage on the American assault craft. Camel beach was divided into three sectors, Red, Blue, and Green. The German guns on Camel Red drove back the assault landing craft. Both naval gunfire support and Army Air Force bombing were called in on the German guns. Neither was successful. The Americans were unable to land on the Red sector and after several attempts to approach the beach were driven back by heavy fire they abandoned the attempt, landing the troops on the other sectors. German air attacks were sporadic, as the Allies enjoyed almost total air superiority.
Simultaneously to the sea launched attack, paratroopers and glider borne troops landed behind the assault beaches to cut off German lines of retreat and to prevent German counterattacks on the beachhead. These landings were uniformly successful. The airborne troops suffered 104 killed during the assault, with 40% of the deaths attributable to accidents. On the beaches, 95 were killed in the initial landing, with less than 400 wounded. There were pockets of isolated German resistance, but they were quickly overrun. German reaction to the assault was uncoordinated, largely due to the efforts of the French Forces of the Interior, which destroyed communications.
Nonetheless German unit commanders, unable to communicate with headquarters, initiated counterattacks, which were hampered and then stopped by FFI units, reinforced by the airborne troops and commandos. The Germans quickly realized that their lines of retreat were close to being completely cut off, and that the beachhead was too well established to repel. German strategy became one of retreating with as much of their forces intact as possible. The German forces in the area, known as Army Group G, launched an assault on the beachhead on August 16, only to find that the Allies position was too strong. The only options for the Germans were retreat or surrender.