On 22 June 1940, the Franco-German Armistice was signed, dividing France in two. The Germans occupied one half, while the other – Vichy – was a French state under the supreme authority of 83-year-old Marshal Philippe Pétain. By the end of June 1940, the Germans also occupied the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, along with their earlier conquests of the Netherlands and Belgium. Mussolini, having declared war on Britain and France on 10 June, attempted an unsuccessful invasion of southern France later in the month, acquiring little land. The landing of the Allies in North Africa and the scuttling of the French fleet in November 1942 led to the German violation of the Armistice, and Nazi troops moved south and acquired Vichy.
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