Var (department) France into the Zone libre, which included the Var department. The French Fleet was sabotaged in Toulon Harbour to keep it from falling into German hands. The Maquis Vallier, a group of maquis resistance fighters, was active. On 15 August 1944 American and Free French forces land at Saint-Tropez, Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Raphaël. The Free French fleet arrived at Toulon on 13 September. In the 1960s about one hundred thousand French citizens were repatriated from Algeria following the Algerian War of Independence and settled in the Var department. The department of Var has a surface area of 6,032 km, and 420
Saint-Tropez for raising an army which repulsed a fleet of Spanish galleons on June 15, 1637; "les Bravades des Espagnols", a local religious and military celebration, commemorates this victory of the Tropezian militia. Count René's promise in 1436 to not tax the citizens of Saint-Tropez was honored until 1672, when Louis XIV abrogated it as he imposed French control. During the 1920s, Saint-Tropez attracted famous figures from the world of fashion like Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli. During World War II, the landing on August 15, 1944 began the Allied invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon. In the 1950s, Saint-Tropez became