France marks 70 years since Allies freed south
France paid tribute Friday to Allied troops -- including veterans from the US and French colonies in Africa -- who landed 70 years ago on Mediterranean shores to liberate French land from Nazi occupation.
The so-called southern landings, involving some 450,000 troops and 881 warships, were launched 10 weeks after the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The two operations liberated territory across northern and southern France, squeezing the Nazi occupiers in a pincer and hastening the German defeat and the end of World War II.
