On 14 June 1940, days after the entry of Italy in the Second World War, the Francoist regime seized the opportunity and, amid the utter collapse of the Third French Republic before the invasion of Nazi Germany, a contingent of 4,000 Moorish soldiers based in the Spanish Morocco occupied the Tangier International Zone, meeting no resistance.[1] Despite the claim the occupation was a "provisional" measure, the operation was the realization of a long-standing wish[2] as well as a prelude to a potential occupation of French Morocco that did not happen because Rabat ultimately capitulated to the new regime of Vichy.[3]