Daily Itinerary

(Day 1)  Sat 12 Aug — Departure
Evening flight to Marseille for arrival on 10 August. 

(Day 2)  Sun 13 Aug — Marseille
Welcome to our Operation Dragoon tour, check into our hotel in the city center for dinner and overnight. Hotel: ibis Marseille Centre Gare Saint-Charles (Meal: Dinner (D))

(Day 3)  Mon 14 Aug — Marseille
While in Marseille we will visit the Commonwealth War Cemetery, the world famous Foreign Legion Museum at Aubagne, German U Boat bunker “Martha” and the Tank Memorial at Notre-Dame De La Garde. Overnight in Marseille. Hotel: ibis Marseille Centre Gare Saint-Charles (Breakfast (B)/D)

(Day 4) Tue 15 Aug — St Tropez
Today we visit the landing beaches and Memorials at St Tropez where the 45th Infantry Division landed, Cavalaire su Mer and St. Raphael where the 3rd and 36th Inf. Divisions landed. The landings were an overwhelming success. On Delta and Alpha beaches, German resistance was low. The allied units in this sector were able to link up with Paratroopers very quickly and succeeded in capturing the nearby towns. Only on Camel Beach did the Germans put up some serious resistance. This beach was secured by several well emplaced coastal guns as well as several flak batteries. German artillery formed the main opposition and some bunkers provided heavy resistance.
The most serious fighting was on Camel Red Beach at the town of St-Raphael. A bomb run of 90 Allied B-24 bombers were used against a German strongpoint here.
But even with the assistance of naval fire, the Allies were not able to bring the landing ships close to the beach. They decided to avoid Camel Red and land only at Camel Blue and Camel Green, which was successful. Overnight in St. Raphael. (B/D)

(Day 5)  Wed 16 Aug — Draguignan
Visit to Le Muy crossroads and museum; a vital inland crossroads captured by paratroopers who paved the way for the advance inland. Le Motte, the first town in
Southern France to be liberated and the American War Cemetery at Draguignan. Overnight in Draguignan. (B/D)

(Day 6)  Thur 17 Aug — Montelimar
Visit to various sites on the Montelimar Battlefield. The battle around Montelimar saw the heaviest fighting of the northerly advance. On the night of 17 August, the German High Command ordered General Blaskowitz’s Army Group G to evacuate southern France. German forces then began to move to the northeast. To cut off the Germans and capture as many as possible, VI Corps commander Major General Truscott organized a mobile task force under his chief of staff, Brig. General Butler, on 17 August. Its job was to drive north, link up with the French Resistance, and try to cut off General Friedrich Paul Wiese’s retreating German Nineteenth Army. Overnight in Lyon or Montelimar. (B/D)

(Day 7)  Fri 18 Aug — Vosges Mountains
Visit the Colmar Pocket and Vosges Mountains battlefields. Here learn of the dramatic story of the “Lost Battalion” and the 442nd Regtimental  Combat Team as we visit Biffontaine. A German bridgehead on the west bank of the Rhine 40 miles long and 30 miles deep was formed in November 1944 when the German defenses in the Vosges Mountains collapsed under the pressure of an offensive by the U.S. 6th Army. The French First Army would force the Belfort Gap and destroyed the German IV Luftwaffe Korps near the town of Burnhaupt in the southern Vosges mountains. Soon after, French Forces reached the Rhine in the region north of the Swiss border between Mulhouse and Basel. Likewise, in the northern Vosges, the French 2nd Armored Division spearheaded a U.S. Seventh Army advance, forced the Saverne Gap, and drove to the Rhine, liberating Strasbourg on 23 November 1944. The effect of these two advances was to collapse the German presence in southern Alsace west of the Rhine to a semi-circular-shaped bridgehead centered on the town on the town of Colmar that came to be known as the Colmar Pocket. Overnight in Holzwihr. (B/D)

(Day 8)  Sat 19 Aug — Colmar Pocket
Visits to the Audie Murphy Medal of Honor battle site, the Colmar Pocket Memorial and various points of interest, including the original Statue of Liberty. Overnight in Strasbourg. (B/D)

(Day 9)  Sun 20 Aug — Departure
Transfer to the Strasbourg airport for your flight home or jump on the train to Paris, Munich or Zurich for some more European fun. (B)