安东行动

过程

到1942年11月10日晚，轴心国军队已完成安东方案的准备工作。第1军团从与西班牙边境平行的大西洋海岸推进，而第7军团则在约翰内斯·布拉斯科维茨大将的指挥下从法国中部向维希和土伦推进。意大利第4军团占领了法国里维埃拉，意大利一个师登陆科西嘉岛。11月11日晚，德国坦克已抵达地中海沿岸。

德国人计划的“莉拉行动”是为了完整地俘虏在土伦的法国舰队。法国海军指挥官透过谈判和诡计成功地拖延了德国人的时间，在德国人抓住他们之前于11月27日击沉了他们的船只，防止了3艘战舰、7艘巡洋舰、28艘驱逐舰和20艘潜舰落入轴心国手中。尽管德国海军参谋部感到失望，但希特勒认为，消灭法国舰队标志着安东行动的成功，因为舰队的摧毁使戴高乐和自由法国海军无法获得成功。

维希法国限制了对反对违反1940年停战协定的无线电广播的抵制。德国政府反驳说，是法国首先违反了停战协定，没有坚决抵抗盟军在北非的登陆。5万兵力的维希法军在土伦周围占据防御阵地，但在面对德军要求解散时，由于缺乏抵抗轴心国的军事能力，它不得不解散。

后续

尽管维希政权只不过是一个傀儡政府，但它继续对除阿尔萨斯-洛林以外的整个法国本土行使名义上的民事权力，就像它自1940年以来所做的那样。墨索里尼下台后，意大利占领区被废除。意大利政府随后于1943年提出停战请求。从此时起法国一直处于德国的完全占领之下，直到1944年盟军登陆并解放该国。

Case Anton (German: Unternehmen Anton) was the military occupation of Vichy France carried out by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in November 1942. It marked the end of the Vichy regime as a nominally independent state and the disbanding of its army (the severely-limited Armistice Army), but it continued its existence as a puppet government within occupied France. One of the last actions of the Vichy armed forces before their dissolution was the scuttling of the French fleet at 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. Operation Anton updated the original Operation Attila, including different Wehrmacht 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, Wehrmacht and Royal Italian Army forces had completed their preparations for Case Anton. The 1st Army advanced from the Atlantic coast, parallel to the France–Spain border, while the 7th Army advanced from central France towards Vichy and Toulon, under the command of General Johannes Blaskowitz. The Italian 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 Operation Lila to capture intact the demobilised French fleet at Toulon. French naval commanders managed to delay the Germans by negotiation and subterfuge long enough to scuttle their ships on 27 November, before German soldiers could seize them, preventing three battleships, seven cruisers, 28 destroyers and 20 submarines from falling into the hands of the Axis powers. Despite the disappointment of the German Naval War Staff, Hitler considered that the elimination of the French fleet sealed the success of Operation Anton since the destruction of the fleet denied it to Charles de Gaulle and the 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 forces.

Aftermath

Although it became little more than a puppet government, the Vichy regime continued to exercise nominal civil authority over the whole of Metropolitan France except 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 western Allied invasions (Operation Overlord in Normandy and Operation Dragoon in the Rhone delta) and liberation of the country in 1944.