General George Patton's Third Army's Seine River Crossing at Mantes-Gassicourt was the first allied bridgehead across the Seine River in the aftermath of Operation Overlord, which allowed the Allies to engage in the Liberation of Paris. During the two days of the bridge crossing, American anti-aircraft artillery shot down almost fifty German planes.

Joseph Bacon Fraser commanded the 48th Armored Division of Georgia and Florida Army National Guard. His military career spanned from World War I to the Korean War before retiring a lieutenant general in 1956. He was also a former mayor of Hinesville, a timber baron, and one of the first resort developers of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, which his son, Charles E. Fraser, developed into Sea Pines Plantation.