page_title: Military history of France during World War II
section_title: German occupation, formation of Vichy France and Armistice army
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of France during World War II / Theatres of World War II / European / French-German and French-Italian armistices (June 22, 1940) / German occupation, formation of Vichy France and Armistice army
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Henry Philippe Petain und Adolf Hitler zentralbild 153-40 II. Weltkrieg 1939-45 24.10.1940 Adolf Hitler begrüßt den französischen Staatschef Marschall Henry Philippe Petain in Montoire-sur-le-Loir. In der Mitte Chefdolmetscher Gesandter Dr. Paul Schmidt. Rechts Reichsaußenminister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Abgebildete Personen: Hitler, Adolf: Reichskanzler, Deutschland Petain, Philippe: Staatschef, Marschall, Frankreich Ribbentrop, Joachim von: Außenminister, NSDAP, Deutschland Schmidt, Paul Otto Gustav Dr.: Chefdolmetscher von Hitler, Pressechef im Auswärtigen Amt, Deutschland
context_page_description: From 1939 until 1940, the French Third Republic was at war with Germany. The period from 1940 until 1945 saw competition between Vichy France and the Free French Forces under General Charles de Gaulle for control of the overseas empire. In 1944, after the landings of the Allies in France, they expelled the German Army, putting an end to the Vichy Regime.
  France and Britain declared war on Germany when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. After the Phoney War from 1939 to 1940, within seven weeks, the Germans invaded and defeated France and forced the British off the continent. France formally surrendered to Germany.
  In August 1943, the de Gaulle and Giraud forces merged in a single chain of command subordinated to Anglo-American leadership, meanwhile opposing French forces on the Eastern Front were subordinated to Soviet or German leaderships. This in-exile French force together with the French Forces of the Interior played a variable-scale role in the eventual liberation of France by the Western Allies and the defeat of Vichy France, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Japanese empire.
context_section_description: Metropolitan France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west and an unoccupied zone in the south. Pétain set up a collaborationist government in the spa town of Vichy and the authoritarian regime French State, replacing the abolished French Republic, came to be known as Vichy France.
caption: Chief of collaborationist French State Marshal Pétain shaking hands with German Nazi leader Hitler at Montoire on October 24, 1940.
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