1942 in France

Incumbents

• Chief of State: Philippe Pétain
• Vice-President of the Council of Ministers: François Darlan, Pierre Laval

  Events

• 19 February - Riom Trial begins, attempt by Vichy France regime to prove that the leaders of the French Third Republic had been responsible for France's defeat by Germany in 1940.
• 28 March - British Commandos raid St Nazaire on the coast of Western France.
• 5 May - Battle of Madagascar begins, Allied campaign to capture Vichy French-controlled Madagascar during World War II.
• 26 May - Battle of Bir Hakeim begins, First Free French Division defends the site against the Italian and German Afrika Korps.
• 11 June - Battle of Bir Hakeim ends, a successful delaying action.
• 14 July - Bastille Day Gaullist demonstrations in Vichy France; 2 women are shot dead by members of the fascist French Popular Party in Marseille.
• 16 July - Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris and Drancy internment camp before deportation to Auschwitz.
• 18 September - 116 people are executed in retaliation for recent attacks on German soldiers
• 19 August - Unsuccessful Dieppe Raid is carried out by Allied forces.
• 24 September - Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France.
• 8 November
• *Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
• *French Resistance Coup in Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralize the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.
• *Madagascar finally secured by Allied forces.
• 10 November - In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
• 27 November - Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon takes place, ordered by the Admiralty of Vichy France to avoid capture by Nazi German forces.
• 7 December - British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.
• 24 December - Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who has switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, assassinated in Algiers.

  Sport

Births

• 18 January - Johnny Servoz-Gavin, motor racing driver
• 21 March - Françoise Dorléac, actress
• 26 April - Claudine Auger, actress
• 24 June - Antoine Berman, translator and historian
• 12 September - François Tavenas, academic in Canada
• 28 September - Pierre Clémenti, actor
• 29 September - Jean-Luc Ponty, jazz violinist and composer
• 17 October - Jean-Pierre Dogliani, soccer player
• 19 October - Edmond Baraffe, soccer player and manager
• 30 November - André Brahic, astrophysicist
• 19 December - Jean-Patrick Manchette, novelist

  Deaths

• 17 April - Jean Baptiste Perrin, physicist and Nobel laureate
• 3 July - Louis Franchet d'Espérey, general during World War I
• 14 July - Sébastien Faure, anarchist
• 20 September - Jacques Émile Blanche, painter
• 24 December - François Darlan, Admiral