On Thursday, France celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of the French Riviera, which drove the Nazis out of the country. The celebrations paid particular tribute to the numerous African soldiers who fought in the conflict and were dispatched from what were then French colonies.
Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, oversaw events to commemorate what is sometimes referred to as “the forgotten D-Day.” At the Boulouris National Cemetery in the town of Saint-Raphael where lie the remains of 464 French soldiers killed in the fighting of August 1944. Although the exact number of Allied deaths is unknown, the French Defense Ministry says that 1,300 Allied soldiers lost their lives in the first two days of the operation.
Due to operation Dragoon, the Allies were able to liberate the largest part of the southern France in less than four weeks. At September 12, 1944, the forces of the Operation Dragoon met fighters from the Normandy landings in the east of Burgundy in northwestern France.
A seafaring portion of the event had to be canceled on Thursday due to storm warnings in the Mediterranean region.
SOURCE https://dew360.net
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