Just prior to the fall of the Italian city and port of Naples, Yarborough was given command of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, whose CO, Major Doyle Yardley, had been captured. His unit, as part of Colonel William O. Darby's Ranger Force, made the initial landings at Anzio-Neptune in January 1944 and held a key position on the beachhead for the next two months. Later, after being relieved at Anzio, under his command the 509th, and two attached parachute battalions, spearheaded the Allied landings in southern France, landing on a mountaintop near Le Muy before dawn. Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo along the Côte d'Azur fell to the parachutists who then turned northward into the Maritime Alps to protect the right flank of Lieutenant General Alexander Patch's U.S. Seventh Army as it moved north.