Mission Dove

In World War II, Mission Dove (Allies, 1944) was the glider-borne assault conducted as part of the invasion of southern France (Operation Dragoon) on 15 August 1944. The original parachute landing, Mission Albatross comprising 396 aircraft carrying 5,600 paratroopers and 150 field guns arrived over the drop zone at 0430hrs. Fog and low cloud resulting in 600 paratroops landing 10 miles away, others were closer, but some ended up 15 miles away.

Three hundred and thirty five Waco CG-4 gliders carried the 55th Glider Infantry Battalion together with equipment to reinforce paratroopers who had already landed, came in at 1810hrs.

Dove was one of three reinforcement operations, the other two being:

Most of the gliders returned that afternoon and managed to land.

Operation Dove (Ireland)

Operation Dove ("Unternehmen Taube" in German) also sometimes known as Operation Pigeon, was an Abwehr sanctioned mission devised in early 1940. The plan envisioned the transport of IRA Chief of Staff Seán Russell to Ireland, and on the arrival of Frank Ryan in Berlin three days before the launch of the operation, it was also decided to transport him during the operation.

Russell's arrival and activities in Germany

Seán Russell had arrived in Berlin on 5 May 1940, four days after arriving in Genoa from the United States. Russell was informed of Operation Mainau, the plan to parachute Dr. Hermann Görtz into Ireland. Russell was asked to brief Görtz on Ireland before his departure that night, but missed his takeoff from the Fritzlar airfield near Kassel.

By 20 May, Russell had begun training with Abwehr in the use of the latest German explosive ordnance. This training was conducted at the Abwehr training school/lab in Berlin-Tegel, which specialised in the design of explosives as everyday objects. Russell also visited the training area for the Brandenburg Regiment, the 'Quenzgut,' where he observed trainees and instructors working with sabotage materials in a field environment. Because he received explosives training, his return to Ireland with a definite sabotage objective was planned by German Intelligence. His total training time with German Intelligence lasted over three months.