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{{Short description|Franco-German armistice in World War II}}
[[File:Hitler and german-nazi officers staring at french marechal foch statue 21 June 1940.png|right|thumb|[[Adolf Hitler]] (hand on hip) looking at the statue of [[Ferdinand Foch]] before starting the negotiations for the armistice at [[Compiègne]], France (21 June 1940)]]
[[File:Fochs Railway Car Second Time Around 1940.jpg|right|thumb|[[Ferdinand Foch]]{{'}}s railway car, at the same location as after [[World War I]], prepared by the Germans for the second armistice at [[Compiègne]], June 1940]]
The '''Armistice of 22 June 1940''', sometimes referred to as the '''Second Armistice at Compiègne''', was an agreement signed at 18:36 on 22 June 1940<ref name = "conv">{{Cite web |url=http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/1940armistice.htm |title="Convention d'armistice" – Text of the armistice signed in Rethondes on 22 June 1940 |last=Maury |first=Jean-Pierre |publisher=[[University of Perpignan]] |website=mjp.univ-perp.fr |access-date=11 June 2015}}</ref> near [[Compiègne]], [[France]] by officials of [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[
Signatories for Germany included [[Wilhelm Keitel]], a senior military officer of the [[Wehrmacht]] (the German armed forces), while those on the French side held lower ranks, including general [[Charles Huntziger]].<ref name = "conv"/> Following the decisive German victory in the [[Battle of France]] (10 May – 25 June 1940) during [[World War II]], this [[armistice]] established [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|a German occupation zone in Northern and Western France]] that encompassed about three-fifths of [[Metropolitan France|France's European territory]], including all [[English Channel]] and [[Atlantic Ocean]] ports. The remainder of the country was to be left unoccupied, although [[Vichy France|the new regime]] that replaced the Third Republic was mutually recognised as the legitimate government of all of Metropolitan France except [[Alsace–Lorraine]]. The French were also permitted to retain control of all of their non-European territories. Adolf Hitler deliberately chose [[Compiègne Forest]] as the site to sign the armistice because of its symbolic role as the site of the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918]] that signaled the end of [[World War I]] with Germany's surrender.
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==Choice of Compiègne==
When Adolf Hitler received word from the French government that it wished to negotiate an [[armistice]], he selected Compiègne Forest as the place for the negotiations. Compiègne had been the site of the [[Armistice of
In the last sentence of the preamble, the drafters inserted: "However, Germany does not have the intention to use the armistice conditions and armistice negotiations as a form of humiliation against such a valiant opponent", referring to the French forces. In Article 3, Clause 2, the drafters said that
[[William Shirer]], who was present on that day, reported, "I am but fifty yards from him. [...] I have seen that face many times at the great moments of his life. But today! It is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph."<ref>Shirer, William, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, Simon & Schuster, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-4516-5168-3}} p. 742</ref> Then, on 21 June 1940, in the same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice had been signed (removed from a museum building and placed exactly where it was in 1918), Hitler sat in the same chair in which Marshal [[Ferdinand Foch]] had sat when he faced the representatives of the defeated [[German Empire]]. After listening to the reading of the preamble, Hitler—in a calculated gesture of disdain for the French delegates—exited the carriage, as Foch had done in 1918, leaving the negotiations to the chief of the ''[[Oberkommando der Wehrmacht]]'' (High Command of the Armed Forces), General [[Wilhelm Keitel]]. The negotiations lasted one day, until the evening of 22 June 1940: General Huntziger had to discuss the terms by phone with the French government representatives, who had fled to Bordeaux, mainly with the newly nominated defence minister, General [[Maxime Weygand]].
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[[Adolf Hitler]] had a number of reasons for agreeing to an armistice. He wanted to ensure that France did not continue to fight from [[French North Africa]], and he wanted to ensure that the French Navy was taken out of the war. In addition, leaving a French government in place would relieve Germany of the considerable burden of administering French territory, particularly as he turned his attentions towards Britain. Finally, as Germany lacked [[Kriegsmarine|a navy]] sufficient to occupy France's overseas territories, Hitler's only practical recourse to deny the British use of them was to maintain a formally independent and neutral French rump state.{{cn|date=February 2024}}
According to [[William Shirer]]'s book ''[[Rise and Fall of the Third Reich]]'', French General [[Charles Huntziger]] complained that the armistice terms imposed on France were harsher than those imposed on Germany in 1918. They provided for German occupation of three-fifths of metropolitan France north and west of a line through Geneva and Tours and extending to the Spanish border, so as to give [[Nazi Germany]]'s ''[[Kriegsmarine]]'' access to all French [[English Channel|Channel]] and [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] ports. All people who had been granted political asylum had to be surrendered and
This was envisaged as a temporary treaty until a final peace treaty was negotiated. At the time, both French and Germans thought the occupation would be a provisional state of affairs and last only until Britain came to terms, which they both thought was imminent.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} For instance, none of the French delegation objected to the stipulation that [[French prisoners of war in World War II|French soldiers would remain prisoners of war]] until the cessation of all hostilities. Nearly 1,000,000 Frenchmen were thus forced to spend the next five years in German POW camps. About a third of the initial 1,500,000 prisoners taken were released or exchanged as part of the Germans' ''[[Service du Travail Obligatoire]]'' forced labour programme by the time the war ended
A final peace treaty was never negotiated, and the free zone ({{lang|fr|zone libre}}) was invaded by Germany and its ally Italy in [[Case Anton]] following the invasion of French North Africa by the Allies in November 1942.
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