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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 jaw-droppingly high occupation costs were demanded of France by Germany, approximately 400 million [[French francs]] a day. A minimal [[French Army]] would be permitted. As one of Hitler's few concessions, the [[French Navy]] was to be disarmed but not surrendered, for Hitler realised that pushing France too far could result in France fighting on from the [[French colonial empire]]. An unoccupied region in the south, the ''[[Zone libre]]'', was left relatively free to be governed by [[Vichy France|a rump French administration]] based in [[Vichy]]. The Vichy regime also administered the occupied zones (other than [[Alsace-Lorraine]]) to some extent, albeit under severe restrictions.
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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