The day of the Panzer : a story of American heroism and sacrifice in Southern France

372 Pages·2008·4.93 MB·English

by  Danby

Published in the United States of America in 2008 by CASEMATE
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And in the United Kingdom by CASEMATE
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Copyright © Jeff Danby 2008
ISBN 978-1-932033-70-0
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To all who served in the liberation of Southern France
Especially those of Company L and Cannon Company,
15th Infantry Regiment,
Company B of the 756th Tank Battalion,
and Company B of the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
And particularly my grandfather, 1st Lt. Edgar R. Danby
“A country worth living in
is a country worth fighting for…”
—1st Lt. Edgar R. Danby
C
ONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: L Company
Chapter 2: Respite and Preparations
Chapter 3: Yellow Beach
Chapter 4: On to Saint-Tropez
Chapter 5: Across Southern France
Chapter 6: Toward Marseille
Chapter 7: Roadblock
Chapter 8: Pursuit North
Chapter 9: Armor Column
Chapter 10: Allan
Chapter 11: Reconnaissance
Chapter 12: The Crossroads
Chapter 13: Trouble in the Rear
Chapter 14: The Gauntlet
Chapter 15: A Small Revenge
Epilogue
Postscript
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
M
APS

Europe 1944
France, August 14, 1944
Stalemate in Central Italy
Operation Anvil
Saint-Tropez Peninsula
Allied Breakout
Progress of L Company across Southern France
Roadblock at Le Griffon
Progress of U.S. Seventh Army
L Company approaches Montélimar
Situation at Allan
Progress of 15th Infantry Regiment through the Rhône River Valley
The Third Infantry Division in WWII

I
LLUSTRATIONS

A gallery of photos
Preface and Acknowledgments

The invasion of Southern France is the forgotten campaign of World War II.
Nearly every other campaign and major battle in the European Theater has been
well researched and described—especially those that took place in Northern
France. Extraordinary accounts of combat on Omaha Beach, in Holland during
Operation Market Garden, and at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge have
been told and retold in everything from best-selling books to blockbuster
movies. Yet few books have been written about the operations in Southern
France. Most general histories mention it only in passing if they mention it at all.
Even World War II enthusiasts are surprised to learn that fighting took place
there. Although overshadowed by larger events, the campaign has been unjustly
ignored—mainly because of the erroneous perception that the effort met with
little or no resistance.
On a general level, the Southern France campaign appears to offer little
excitement. The operation unfolded in a relatively blunder-free manner, was
concluded one month later, and extracted far fewer Allied lives than planners
originally feared. As a general rule, campaigns such as this rarely send historians
scrambling for a typewriter. Some writers have derisively dubbed the operation
“The Champaign Campaign,” as if the massive operation during which many
good men lost their lives was nothing more than a marching cocktail party. The
moniker makes for a clever nickname, but it is also a most unjust
characterization that dismisses the hardships and trials of thousands of men,
many of whom were wounded or killed. The Southern France campaign does not
offer historians something similar to those horrible initial hours on Omaha
Beach or the desperate fighting waiting in the hedgerow countryside beyond, but
it is a rich and moving drama that deserves much more scrutiny than it has
received.

An entire American army stormed the French Riviera one hot summer day in
August 1944. Accompanied by British paratroopers and supported by a vast air
force, the army was augmented with French infantry and armored divisions. A
sweeping armada of 885 ships (with some 1,375 additional boats carried on the
decks) set them ashore—151,000 troops and 21,400 vehicles. Up until that
moment, it was the second largest amphibious landing of the war. A German
army and battle-hardened panzer division, skillfully resisted the inland Allied
thrust with a spirited and skillfully conducted fighting retreat up the Rhône River
Valley. When the battle for Southern France ended on September 15, more than
2,000 Americans were listed among the killed, captured, or missing, with
another 2,500 wounded. Regular Free French forces suffered similar losses, and
many other French Resistance irregulars and civilians perished. Estimates of
Germans losses run as high as 7,000 killed and 21,000 wounded. For all of these
unfortunate souls, Southern France was no “Champaign Campaign.”
Despite the enormity of the operation, the landings were entirely upstaged by
and sandwiched between two major events. That June, the critical landings at
Normandy secured a solid foothold in Fortress Europe. Weeks of intense and
bloody hedgerow fighting followed. The invasion of Southern France
commenced after the Allies broke into the open and swept toward Paris. The
news that the Allies had broken out of the Normandy region caught the attention
of the world’s press. Just after the operation in Southern France ended, the
ambitious but illfated Operation Market Garden assault into Holland got
underway. With both ends of France secure, the Allied armies merged quickly
that autumn along a massive front and pressed toward Germany. Winter’s arrival
initiated larger and more pressing challenges in the Ardennes, the Hürtgen
Forest, and Colmar. The memories and experiences in the south of France passed
quickly off the stage against a backdrop of death and bad weather on an epic
scale.
The war in Europe concluded the following spring. On its heels followed a
spate of books on the war. To most observers, the Allied drive across Northern
France provided a more appropriate and compelling framework for explaining
the war on the Western Front. The more modest operation farther south was
always intended to supplement the massive Normandy invasion. When measured
against Omaha Beach and its immediate aftermath, the relative ease with which
the American and French divisions achieved their objectives lessened the
campaign’s appeal. This unfortunate oversight continues to this day.
No one involved in the Southern France operation expected the grand
success that resulted. Winston Churchill feared another Anzio-like stalemate and
had lobbied long and hard against the effort. The combat veterans of the Italian
campaign prepared for the worst and fully expected their leaders were about to