Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 14, 1944. In Frank Sheeran’s recollection, it marked a move from the fighting in Italy to another landing against German forces, and its first moments at St. Tropez brought a brief, startling misunderstanding: what looked like blood on his uniform was wine from a shattered canteen.

Deployment and Context

Sheeran recalled that his unit had been fighting Germans in Italy before being put aboard landing craft for the invasion. The operation came after months of costly stalemate and fighting around Anzio and the eventual Allied breakthrough at Monte Cassino. By late May, 150,000 soldiers had moved out of Anzio to join the advance toward Rome; the Allies landed in Normandy on June 6, opening another front. In Sheeran’s account, the landing in southern France followed that Italian campaign and brought his unit to a new stretch of the European front.

The Landing at St. Tropez

The troops met resistance as they landed, though Sheeran characterized it as harassment rather than substantial firepower. He nevertheless stressed that even limited gunfire was dangerous. Running up from the surf onto the beach at St. Tropez, he saw red across his uniform and thought he had been hit. He called for a medic. Lieutenant Kavota, from Hazelton, Pennsylvania, ran over and told him that the red was wine: a shot had struck his canteen, not Sheeran. The lieutenant’s blunt correction sent him back into motion, and Sheeran remembered him approvingly as a good soldier.

The Advance and the Account’s Emphasis

Sheeran’s narrative moves quickly from the confusion on the beach to the outcome: the Allies eventually drove the Germans back and entered Alsace-Lorraine, a region he described as partly French and partly German. He does not give a detailed account of the operation’s wider plan or command structure. Instead, the landing is rendered through the immediate experience of an individual soldier—uncertain fire, a sudden glimpse of red, and the relief of learning that the apparent wound came from wine. That small misreading gives the episode its defining turn without diminishing the danger of the landing.