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| June 17 |
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| Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain asked the Germans for an armistice. | 1 |
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| June 22 |
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| The armistice was signed at Compiègne. It provided that the French forces be disarmed, and that three-fifths of France be surrendered to German control. | 2 |
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| June 24 |
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| An armistice was concluded between France and Italy. | 3 |
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| July 3 |
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| Battle of Mers-el-Kebir. The British, to prevent the battle cruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg and other naval forces from falling into enemy hands, called upon the French commander to join the British or sail to British or West Indian ports to be disarmed. The French commander, on orders from Vichy, resisted, whereupon the British opened fire and destroyed or damaged three battleships. The Strasbourg escaped to Toulon. The Dunkerque (26,000 tons), the Provence (22,000), the Bretagne (22,000), and an aircraft carrier (10,000) were damaged, and French losses in men were 1,300 dead. | 4 |
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| July 4 |
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| All French ships in ports under British control were seized. | 5 |
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| July 5 |
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| The French government at Vichy severed relations with the British government. On Nov. 11, 1942, German forces entered unoccupied France, following the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa. (For the liberation of France, see (See 1944, June 6).) | 6 |
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