Allied logistics in the Southern France campaign played a key role in the success of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France during World War II. The US Seventh Army landed on the French Riviera on 15 August 1944. Its primary objective was to capture the ports of Marseille and Toulon, then drive northward up the Rhône valley. Both ports were captured, but badly damaged, so considerable effort was required to bring them into service. Priority was given to ammunition during combat loading, anticipating stubborn German resistance. When this proved to not be the case, ammunition had to be moved out of the way to reach other materiel, which slowed unloading. To facilitate the advance, engineers repaired bridges, rehabilitated railways and laid pipelines. The Seventh Army continued to draw its supplies from the North African Theater of Operations until the Southern Line of Communications was merged with the Communications Zone of the European Theater of Operations on 20 November.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_logistics_in_the_Southern_France_campaign

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1854:

Pope Pius IX promulgated the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, proclaiming the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ineffabilis_Deus

1880:

At an assembly of 10,000 Boers, Paul Kruger announced the fulfilment of the decision to restore the government and volksraad of the South African Republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kruger

1941:

The Holocaust: The Chełmno extermination camp in occupied Poland, the first such Nazi camp to kill Jews, began operations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che%C5%82mno_extermination_camp

1991:

Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian leaders signed the Belovezh Accords, agreeing to dissolve the Soviet Union and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Independent_States

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

publican: 1. (chiefly Britain) The landlord (manager or owner) of a public house (“a bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging; a pub”). 2. (Australia, New Zealand, by extension) The manager or owner of a hotel. 3. (Ancient Rome, historical) A tax collector, especially one working in Judea and Galilee during New Testament times (1st century C.E.) who was generally regarded as sinful for extorting more tax than was due, and as a traitor for serving the Roman Empire. 4. (by extension, archaic) Any person who collects customs duties, taxes, tolls, or other forms of public revenue. 5. (figuratively, archaic) 6. One regarded as extorting money from others by charging high prices. 7. (Christianity) A person excommunicated from the church; an excommunicant or excommunicate; also, a person who does not follow a Christian religion; a heathen, a pagan. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/publican

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I want to say thank you. And I want to say thank you to my mother, who is here tonight. You’ll see her in a little while. But she grew up in the 1950s, in Waycross, Georgia, picking somebody else’s cotton and somebody else’s tobacco. But tonight she helped pick her youngest son to be a United States senator.   --Raphael Warnock https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Raphael_Warnock