France honours overlooked heroes of 1944 Provence landings, 80 years on

This photograph taken in Saint-Tropez, south-eastern France, on August 1944 shows Allied troops landing on the coast of Provence during the Operation "Dragoon", gripping the German occupier and forcing it to retreat. AFP - -

France on Thursday remembers the 1944 Allied landings in Provence, an event overshadowed by the Normandy landings two months prior but that was key to the World War II endgame in Europe.

On 15 August, 1944, some 100,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of the French Riviera.