Short answers, pulled from the story.
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of Provence in Southern France, launched on the 15th of August 1944. US VI Corps landed on the Côte d'Azur under naval and air cover, followed by French Army B, which captured the ports of Marseille and Toulon. The operation liberated most of Southern France in four weeks.
The operation was originally called Anvil, intended to complement Sledgehammer, the early code name for the Normandy invasion. Both plans were renamed: Sledgehammer became Operation Overlord and Anvil became Operation Dragoon. The renaming was made official on the 1st of August 1944.
Churchill argued that Dragoon would divert military resources from Allied operations in Italy. He favored an invasion through the Balkans to deny Germany petroleum, forestall the Soviet advance, and secure a stronger Allied negotiating position in postwar Europe. As late as the 4th of August 1944, just eleven days before the landing, he proposed redirecting it to the coast of Brittany.
The defending force was Army Group G under Johannes Blaskowitz, which held only one army, the 19th, led by Friedrich Wiese. Its eleven understrength divisions were spread at an average of 90 km per division. The only capable formation was the 11th Panzer Division, commanded by Wend von Wietersheim; most remaining troops were second- and third-rate, including Ostlegionen volunteers equipped with obsolete weapons.
Allied casualties on the landing day were very light: 95 killed and 385 wounded. Of those, 40 casualties were caused by a single Henschel Hs 293 guided gliding bomb from a Do 217 bomber of wing KG 100, which sank a tank landing ship. The airborne phase that preceded the main landing cost 104 dead, 24 from glider accidents and 18 from parachute accidents.
Taskforce Butler occupied hills north of Montélimar on the 21st of August 1944, placing Allied artillery on the main German escape route along the Rhône. Over several days of fighting, neither side could achieve a lasting result. During the 26th-the 28th of August, the bulk of German forces escaped, leaving behind 4,000 burnt-out vehicles and 1,500 dead horses; German losses were 2,100 battle casualties and 8,000 prisoners of war, while the Americans suffered 1,575 casualties.