The Vichy French reformed the High Sea Forces ( (FHM)) after the French surrender in late June. After most of the sister ships returned to France in November, three of them were assigned to the FHM and the others were placed in reserve. The seven completed ships were scuttled in Toulon when the Germans occupied Vichy France in November 1942. The (Royal Italian Navy) salvaged most of them during 1943 and towed three of them to Italy for repairs. All of the ships were captured by the Germans after the Italian armistice in September, but they made little effort to finish the repairs. They did attempt to complete , but were unsuccessful before the end of the war. The three ships in Italy were scuttled in April 1945 to prevent their capture by the Allies; the remaining ships in Toulon were either sunk by Allied bombers or scuttled by the Germans after Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France, in August 1944. All of the ships were salvaged for scrap or broken up on the slipway after the war except for "L'Opiniâtre" which was launched after the war and used for testing before she was scrapped in 1971. "Lansquenet" was refloated and towed back to Toulon in 1946 and was still incomplete when she was scrapped in 1958.