One of the last actions of the Vichy armed forces before their dissolution was the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon to prevent it from falling into Axis hands.

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.

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.

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.