I`ve never come across an Order of Battle that`s online for the 7th Army or VI Corps for the Southern France invasion & i`ve been looking for years. It`s probly buried in some obscure book or gov archive.

As for the St Rapheal assault landings of the 36th ID, the Beach Operating group consisted of the 540th Combat Engineers, 48th Combat Engineers, 8th Naval Beach Battalion, & units of the 504th Military Police Co. My dad landed in the 2nd or 3rd wave.

8th Naval Beach Battalion

excepts from their website:

"[in early July the entire Beach Battalion except a small rear echelon, moved from AATB Salerno, Italy to the vicinity of Battpaglia and bivouacked with the 540th Combat Engineers Regiment, U.S. Army. Training in conjunction with the 540th Engineers was instituted and the Battalion participated in the battalion and regimental landing exercises with the 36th Division.

On July 22nd 1944 the EIGHTH Beach Battalion moved with the 540th Engineers to a new bivouac area North of Naples to Quaglian and continued routine training.

One Company of the 48th was attached to the 540th to bring the 540th up to three Companies. "C" Company of the EIGHTH Beach Battalion was assigned to the 48th .

During the early part of August, the Battalion with its combat equipment, was made ready for a combat operation, personnel and equipment were loaded according to the loading plan of the 540th Combat Engineers Regiment, U.S. Army, to which the Battalion was attached.

On August 7th and 8th the Beach Battalion took part in a training operation in which personnel were landed from seaward. Each unit of the Beach Battalion rehearsed its part with the battalion or company of the Engineer Regiment to which it was assigned.

During the assault phase of the Camel operation, the companies of the EIGHTH Beach Battalion bivouacked with, and subsisted with, the battalions and companies of the 540th Engineers to which they were assigned. The entire Beach Battalion worked in harmony and close cooperation with the 540th Engineer Regiment, and supplies were expedited across the beaches during the assault and post-assault phases.

As a matter of note; with the exception of one infantry battalion that landed at Antheor, (Blue Beach), the entire 36th Division, with all of its personnel, vehicles, artillery, tanks and equipment, was put across "Green Beach", (230 yards wide), during "D"- day.

Some 7,000 prisoners of war were evacuated seaward during the first six days of the operation, and prisoners were being sent to seaward from "Green Beach" before noon of "D"-day. About 1,400 casualties, brought back from the lines, were treated, tagged and evacuated to seaward before the army hospital units were set up inland and took over the hospitalization of the wounded. "

Yes, the Invasion of Southern France has been deemed generaly unimportant in the history of WWII but consider these facts and questions: over one-third of the supplies for the forces in northern France, & thousands of followup troops came thru the Port of Marsilles. It put the Sixth Army Group on the right flank of Patton`s 3rd Army. The 7th Army`s drive up thru France forced the Germans to withdraw 250,000 troops from southern & western France. Now, without an Army group on his right to cover & fill the line & a quarter of million germans behind him, could Patton have pulled out of a winter battle during the Battle of the Bulge to relieve Bastone?

You've probably seen this third infantry website.

The pictures are unbelievable.

http://www.dogfacesoldiers.org/d%5Fday/xxxx-02.htm

Here`s a list books about the Invasion of southern France from this website:

http://books.stonebooks.com/cgi-bin/foxweb...ubjects?1000366

Invasion of southern France, August 1944

(aka Anvil-Dragoon)Broader subjects Books on this subject

Main subjects

Naval operations in the Mediterranean, 1943-1945

Northwest Europe campaign, 1944-1945

Adleman, Robert and George Walton. The Champagne Campaign: Spectacular Airborne Invasion that Turned... Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1969.

Anonymous. Operations in Southern France. London: HMSO, 1946.

Aron, Robert. France Reborn: The History of the Liberation. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964.

Bimberg, Edward L. The Moroccan Goums: Tribal Warriors in a Modern War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Breuer, William B. Operation Dragoon: The Allied Invasion of the South of France. Novato: Presidio Press, 1987.

Clarke, Jeffrey and Robert Ross Smith. United States Army in World War II: European Theater of Op.... Riviera to the Rhine. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1993.

De Lattre de Tassigny, Jean. The History of the French First Army. London: Allen and Unwin, 1952.

Esvelin, Philippe. Forgotten Wings. Bayeux: Editions Heimdal, 2007.

Funk, Arthur Layton. Hidden Ally: The French Resistance, Special Operations, and the Landings in Southern France, 1944. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Gaujac, Paul. L'Armee de la Victoire: De la Provence a l'Alsace. Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle, 1985.

Gaujac, Paul. Dragoon: The Other Invasion of France, August 15, 1944. Paris: Histoire & Collections, 2004.

Goddard, William B. Report of Operations: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany 1944-1945, volume II. Nashville: Battery Press, 1988.

Goddard, William B. Report of Operations: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany 1944-1945, volume I. Nashville: Battery Press, 1988.

Miller, Robert. August 1944: The Campaign for France. Novato: Presidio Press, 1988.

Mitcham jr, Samuel W. Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000.

Naval Staff History Office. Invasion Europe. London: HMSO, 1994.

Neufeld, William. Slingshot Warbirds: World War II U.S. Navy Scout-Observation Airmen. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc, 2003.

Robichon, Jacques. The Second D-Day. New York: Walker, 1969.

Ross, Robert Todd. The Supercommandos: First Special Service Force, 1942-1944: An Illustrated History. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 2000.

Springer, Joseph A. Black Devil Brigade: The True Story of the First Special Service. Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Military History, 2001.

Trez, Michel de. First Airborne Task Force: Pictorial History of the Allied Paratroopers in the Invasion of Southern France. Wezembeek-Oppem: D-Day Publishing, 1998.

Truscott, Lucian. Command Missions. Novato: Presidio Press, 1990.

US Army. United States Army Campaigns of World War II. Southern France. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1994.

US Army Air Force. Wings at War. The AAF in the Invasion of Southern France. Washington, DC: Center for Air Force History, 1992.

Weigley, Russell. Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981.

Wilt, Alan. French Riviera Campaign. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univ Press, 1981.

Thx you all for the info's and the links and thx to the two M's I'll see if I can get the book over here.

You've probably seen this third infantry website.

The pictures are unbelievable.

 

http://www.dogfacesoldiers.org/d%5Fday/xxxx-02.htm

Oh yes, Denis' site is listed on our main site, and if you go to his Thank you page, you might see a name you recognize!

You are absolutely correct about the photos; top-notch!

Here`s a list books about the Invasion of southern France from this website:

http://books.stonebooks.com/cgi-bin/foxweb...ubjects?1000366

 

EXCELLENT list!

Thx you all for the info's and the links and thx to the two M's I'll see if I can get the book over here.

Hey M:

If you can't get the book, I will get you a copy and mail it over. Let me know.

Here's my Dad's battle record. I guess he must have been either too busy or too weary to continue carving the battles in his canteen after St. Tropaz.

-- attachment is not available --

Hey Chris:

It's great that you still have that. Ya, you are probably right; after all he'd been through and seen, he probably didn't feel like keeping track of his exploits...

Hey Marion! You ARE inspirational! and THAT'S an understatement!

mah

Chris,

That's so cool that you have that memento of your Dad's!

I have something a bit similar. It's a bracelet that looks like it's

made out of aluminum and has written on each link the VI corps campaigns

from North Africa through Rome. It also says "Don't forget me" and I believe

was made to send home to wives & sweethearts.

It wasn't my Dad's, but belonged to a Vet who'se family sold it after he passed away

because they thought it was "junk". Can you believe it? I bought it & wore it

for years in his honor and also in memory of my Dad. I stopped wearing it because

I began to worry that I'd lose it. It's now put away with all my Dad's army memorabilia.

I think you're right, by St Tropez they were so physically and mentally exhausted

they didn't care about keeping track of their whereabouts. Also - they were on

the move constantly.

Mary Ann

The part about it being JUNK! That just floors me, as I'm sure it does many others on this site. JUNK! Makes ya want to send them to the head of the slappin' line. Step up!

Mary Ann,

I have seen those aluminum bracelets and I think they were made by some of the locals in Italy. Our friend Gilles from Switzerland http://dogface36.skyrock.com/ has a good collection of some he has picked up frrom ebay. I think they are pretty cool.

Gilles mentioned something about Dad's canteen being proof that the 36th landed on Yellow beach where he is originally from.

The funny thing about that canteen is that I carried it for more years than my dad. He gave it to me when I was about 8 years old and I carried it until I was about 20. It is one of the old WW1 models, with a metal cap. Dad said he grabbed it because he didnt think you could properly clean the plastic lids

Chris

 

Hey M:

 

If you can't get the book, I will get you a copy and mail it over. Let me know.

Thx again M I'll do that.

I know it. When I told the man who I bought it from why I wanted it so much, he was

THRILLED! He was so disgusted with the Vets children & appalled that this gentleman's

treasured mementos would be dismissed as "junk".

Where's my bazooka?

I'd like to tell people like that: "Sit right down in this chair - and let me PLUG IT IN!!!!