During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Operation Attila (named after Attila the Hun) was a plan for the German occupation of

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its te ...

. It was drawn up as War Directive no. 19 in December 1940 in case the French rejoined the Allies or of an Allied threat to the south of France. An important aspect was the capture of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

, with various measures under consideration to prevent its escape despite the fact that little resistance was otherwise expected. Owing to the changing situation of the war, particularly as a consequence of the events on the Eastern front, the original plan was never executed. An altered version ( Case Anton), designed as an improvised plan to be "carried out at very short notice", which included Italian forces, was executed on 11 November 1942 in response to the Operation Torch landings in North Africa. The attempt to capture the French fleet, Operation Lila, failed due to the

scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon The scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon was orchestrated by Vichy France on 27 November 1942 to prevent Nazi German forces from taking it over. After the Allied invasion of North Africa the Germans invaded the territory administered by V ...

, on orders of Admiral Jean de Laborde, to prevent its capture. As a result of the action, the Germans and Italians failed to gain the use of three battleships, seven cruisers, twenty-eight destroyers and twenty submarines. However, the destruction of the fleet also denied it to Charles de Gaulle and the

Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...

, which explained Hitler's satisfaction at the result.

Sources

* * Military operations of World War II involving Germany World War II operations of the Western European Theatre {{france-mil-stub