forces landed at Ajaccio and Porto Vecchio. By the time of the Armistice of Cassibile (3 September 1943) the Italian withdrawal from the Axis, German occupation forces in Corsica comprised the , a battalion of the 15th Panzergrenadier Division two heavy coastal artillery batteries and one of heavy anti-aircraft guns. On 7 September, General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin arrived to take command. Senger received assurances from the Italian commander, Giovanni Magli, that the Italian garrison would continue to fight against the local resistance and not oppose the arrival of German troops from Sardinia. There were about 20,000 French on the island and the Germans suspected that many of the Italians would defect. Operation Achse At the First Quebec Conference 17–24 August 1943, the Allies had decided not to occupy Sardinia and Corsica until Italy had capitulated and Allied air bases had been established around Rome. (Operation Axis), a German plan to forestall an Italian surrender and defection to the Allies, began on 8 September, which included the evacuation of the garrisons of Sardinia to Corsica. When news of the Armistice was announced on 8 September, German forces began to embark from the ports of La Maddalena and Santa Teresa Gallura on the north coast of Sardinia, landing at Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio in Corsica, the Italian coastal gunners nearby not interfering with the operation. The Germans used craft available since the evacuation of Sicily and such barges that could be diverted from transporting fuel from Leghorn (Livorno) to the front in Italy, to shift troops from Sardinia to Corsica. moved to Ghisonaccia Airfield in Corsica on 10 September, becoming and the next day the last 44 aircraft in Sardinia arrived. Action off Bastia At midnight on 8/9 September, German marines captured Bastia harbour, damaged the and massacred seventy of the crew. The merchant ship Humanitas (7,980 gross register tons (GRT)) and a MAS boat were also damaged but the managed to sail at the last moment. The next day, Italian troops counter-attacked and forced the Germans out; the port commander ordered Commander Fecia di Cossato, the captain of Aliseo, to prevent Germans ships in the harbour from escaping. At dawn on 9 September, lookouts on Aliseo spotted German ships leaving the harbour in the early-morning mist and turning north, close to the coast. Aliseo was outnumbered and outgunned, having only a speed advantage over the German flotilla but closed on