Italian-occupied France

Italian-occupied France was a small section of south-east France occupied by Fascist Italy during World War II.

On 25 June 1940, after the Fall of France, France and Italy signed an armistice and an Italian zone of occupation was agreed upon. The initial zone was 832 km² and contained 28,500 inhabitants. The largest town contained within the initial zone of occupation was Menton.

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 Grenoble, Nice, the Rhône River delta, and Corsica. Nice and Corsica were to be annexed to Italy, but this was not done because of the Italian surrender to the Allies in September 1943 when the Germans took over the Italian occupation zones.

See Robert O. Paxton Vichy France, Old Guard, New Order 1972, 1997 on how the Italian zone acted as a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution in Vichy France during the occupation. The Italian Jewish banker Angelo Donati had the important role of convincing the Italian civil and military authorities to protect the Jews from the French persecution.

Bordeaux
The Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) established a submarine base at Bordeaux outside of Italian-occupied France. The base was code named BETASOM and, from it, thirty-two Italian submarines participated in the Battle of the Atlantic.