Largely forgotten because it was overshadowed by the so-called D-Day invasion at Normandy, the Allies launched Operation Dragoon into Southern France in August 1944. Designed to apply added pressure on the German army and to provide badly needed logistical points of entry into what the Nazis had named Festung Europa (Fortress Europe), the operation was supplemented by a diversionary attack on the port city of La Ciotat by a small flotilla comprising one destroyer (the USS Endicott [DD-495]), two British gunboats ( Aphis and Scarab ), and 17 PT boats.
