Italian occupation of France

Italian Military Administration in France Amministrazione Militare Italiana di Francia
Military Administration of the Kingdom of Italy
← 1940–1943 →
Flag Royal Coat of arms
Occupied France during World War II, showing German occupation zones (the zone occupée, the Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France, annexed Alsace-Lorraine, the zone interdites) and the Italian Military Administration in France.   Occupation zone (1940–42)   Demilitarised zone (1940–42)   Striped Occupation zone 1942–43
Government		Military Administration
Historical era		World War II
•	Italian invasion	10 June 1940 1940
•	Italian armistice	8 September 1943 1943

Italian-occupied France was an area of south-eastern France occupied by Fascist Italy in two stages during World War II. The occupation lasted from June 1940 until the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces on September 8, 1943, when Italian troops on French soil retreated under pressure from the Germans.

The initial Italian occupation of France territory occurred in June 1940; it was then expanded in November 1942.

The German offensive against the Low Countries and France began on 10 May and by the middle of May was on French soil. By the start of June, the British were evacuating from the pocket in Northern France. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war against the French and British. Ten days later, the Italian army invaded France. During the fighting, the Italians lost 631 men killed and 2,631 wounded, with an additional 616 reported missing. A further 2,151 men were stricken by frostbite during the campaign. French losses amounted to 229 casualties. On 24 June 1940, after the Fall of France, Italy and France signed the Franco-Italian Armistice, two days after the Second Armistice at Compiegne between France and Germany, agreeing upon an Italian zone of occupation.

This initial zone of occupation annexed officially to the Kingdom of Italy was 832 km² and contained 28,500 inhabitants. The largest town contained within the initial Italian zone of occupation was Menton. The main city inside the "demilitarized zone" of 50 km from the former border with the Italian Alpine Wall was Nice.

In November 1942, in conjunction with Case Anton, the German occupation of most of Vichy France, the Royal Italian Army (Regio Esercito) expanded its occupation zone. Italian forces took control of Toulon and all of Provence up to the river Rhône, with the island of Corsica (claimed by the Italian irredentists). Nice and Corsica were to be annexed to Italy (as had happened in 1940 with Menton), in order to fulfil the aspirations of Italian irredentists (including local groups such as the Nizzardo Italians and the Corsican Italians). But this was not completed because of the Italian surrender to the Allies in September 1943 when the Germans took over the Italian occupation zones.