Eighty years ago this week the German retreat from Normandy is harried from the air

 

The German forces in Normandy were in full retreat following the US success in the west and the Anglo-Canadian success around Caen. Their forces were hemmed into a narrow pocket south of Falaise where they were subjected to constant air attacks, most famously by RAF Typhoons firing rockets. These destroyed around one third of German motor transport and led to many more vehicles being abandoned.

 US forces landed in the south of France in Operation Dragoon. At first it had been intended to take place simultaneously with the Normandy landings but shortage of landing craft made this impossible. The British would have preferred an operation aimed at northern Italy as a stepping stone for an attack on the Balkans, but Roosevelt insisted on Dragoon. The Germans had only weak forces to oppose the landings and a simultaneous rising by the French Resistance.

The  US completed the conquest of the Marianas when the last significant Japanese resistance on Guam, the largest islands  was overcome although Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi remained at large until 1972. Practically the entire garrison fought to the death in keeping with Japanese practice.