Case Anton

Case Anton
	Part of Panzertruppen watching a burning French warship, probably Colbert
Date	10–27 November 1942; (2 weeks and 3 days)
Location	France
Result	Axis victory Military occupation of the Zone libre; Division of the Zone libre between Germany and Italy; Failure to capture the French fleet;
Belligerents
Germany; Italy	Vichy France
Commanders and leaders
Johannes Blaskowitz; Mario Vercellino	Philippe Pétain; Pierre Laval; Jean de Laborde

Case Anton (

scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon

to prevent it from falling into Axis hands.

Background

A German plan to occupy Vichy France had been drawn up in December 1940 under the codename of

Operation Attila and soon came to be considered with Operation Camellia, the plan to occupy Corsica.^[1] Operation Anton updated the original Operation Attila, including different German units and adding Italian

involvement.

For Adolf Hitler, the main rationale for permitting a nominally-independent France to exist was that it was, in the absence of German naval superiority, the only practical means to deny the use of the French colonies to the Allies. However, the Allied landings in French North Africa on 8 November 1942 caused that rationale to disappear, especially since it quickly became apparent that the Vichy government possessed neither the political will nor the practical means to prevent French colonial authorities from submitting to Allied occupation. Moreover, Hitler knew he could not risk an exposed flank on the French Mediterranean. After a final conversation with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, Hitler gave orders for Corsica to be occupied on 11 November and Vichy France the following day.

Operation

By the evening of 10 November 1942,

4th Army occupied the French Riviera

and an Italian division landed on Corsica. By the evening of 11 November, German tanks had reached the Mediterranean coast.

The Germans had planned

Free French Navy

.

Vichy France offered no resistance, contenting itself with a radio broadcast objecting to the violation of the armistice of 1940. The German government countered that it was the French who violated the armistice first by not offering a determined resistance to the Allied landings in North Africa. The 50,000-strong Vichy French Army took defensive positions around Toulon, but when confronted by German demands to disband, it did so since it lacked the military capability to resist the Axis forces.

Aftermath

Although it became little more than a

Alsace-Lorraine, as it had done since 1940. The Italian occupation zone was abolished following the removal of Mussolini from office and the Italian government's subsequent request for an armistice in 1943. France subsequently remained under exclusively German occupation from then until the Allied invasion and liberation of the country

in 1944.