The plan included Operazione C2 (11 November) the Italian occupation of the French island of Corsica and mainland France up to the Rhone.

The initial occupation force of 30,000 Italian troops rose to just under 85,000 men, a huge number relative to the Corsican population of 220,000.

He worked with the Corsican writer Petru Giovacchini, who was named as the potential governor of Corsica, if Italy annexed the island.

[citation needed] Benito Mussolini postponed unification until a peace treaty after the anticipated Axis victory, mainly because of German opposition to irredentist claims.

[5] Social and economic life in Corsica was administered by the French civil authorities, the préfet and four sous-préfets in Ajaccio, Bastia, Sartene and Corte.

The Maquis leadership was reinforced and morale was boosted by six visits by Casabianca, bringing personnel and arms, later supplemented by air drops.

[8] On 30 August, Jean Nicoli and two French partisans of the Front National were shot in Bastia, by order of an Italian war tribunal.

[10] Unternehmen Achse (Operation Axis), a German plan to forestall an Italian surrender and defection to the Allies, began on 8 September, which included the evacuation of the garrisons of Sardinia to Corsica.

When news of the Armistice was announced on 8 September, German forces began to embark from the ports of La Maddalena and Santa Teresa Gallura on the north coast of Sardinia, landing at Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio in Corsica, the Italian coastal gunners nearby not interfering with the operation.

The Germans used craft available since the evacuation of Sicily and barges that could be diverted from transporting fuel from Leghorn (Livorno) to the front in Italy to move troops from Sardinia to Corsica.

The merchant ship Humanitas (7,980 gross register tons [GRT]) and a MAS boat were also damaged but Aliseo managed to sail at the last moment.

At dawn on 9 September, lookouts on Aliseo spotted German ships leaving the harbour in the early morning mist and turning north, close to the coast.

By 19 September, the 90th Panzergrenadier Division, a fortress brigade, anti-aircraft and Luftwaffe units comprising 25,800 men, 4,650 vehicles and 4,765 long tons (4,841 t) of supplies had reached Corsica from Sardinia.

[13] 1,600 casualties The Free French General Henri Giraud feared that the Maquis on Corsica would be crushed unless the Allies intervened.

Giraud gained the agreement of the Allied supreme commander of the North African Theater of Operations, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to intervene.

Eisenhower stipulated that no Allied forces engaged in Operation Avalanche, the landings at Salerno (9–16 September) and the French must use their own ships and troops.

An American commando unit comprising 400 men, with 20 long tons (20 t) of supplies, was landed from the Italian destroyers Legionario and Oriani.

The Germans also airlifted 21,107 men and about 350 long tons (360 t) of supplies for a loss of 55 transport aircraft, most on the ground on Italian airfields, to Allied bombing.

[14] The transport of Allied forces to Corsica continued and on 21 September, 1,200 men, 110 long tons (110 t) of stores, six guns and six vehicles were delivered by the light cruiser Jeanne d'Arc and the destroyers Le Fantasque, Tempête and L'Alcyon.