the quick collapse of friends during
World War two was a shock to many in the
world its colonial empire was largely
administered from a German puppet
government known as [ __ ] France and
there was a major worry from the Allied
High Command of antagonizing the puppet
French government enough that they
openly fight against the Allied forces
however this didn't limit allied actions
against the state and in today's video
we'll be looking at one such conflict
the british invasion of french syria
[Music]
in May 1941 french admiral francais de
lon
deputy of the Vichy France state signed
the Paris protocols with the Germans the
protocols granted Germany access to
military facilities in Fiji controlled
Syria the protocols remained unravel I'd
but honor a dense the High Commissioner
for the Levant
was instructed to allow German and
Italian aircraft the ability to refuel
in Syria they would be marked as Iraqi
aircraft and axis aircraft were landed
in Syria in route to the kingdom of Iraq
during the anglo Iraq war which I have a
video already uploaded on the channel
about the Germans also requested
permission from the Vichy authorities to
use serene railways to send ornaments to
the Iraqis in masuleh the months prior
to the Lebanon Syrian campaign saw the
Middle Eastern command under general
Archibald Wavell stretched to the limit
he was faced with an ongoing campaign in
North Africa and with his force
significantly depleted following the
disasters in Greece and Crete without
learned of Churchill's desire to invade
Syria and Lebanon something that wave
old personally opposed there were
several reasons for Churchill scissored
invasion chief among them being the
possibility for Lebanon and Syria to be
used as a base for the Germans should
they be allowed to enter the area by a
sympathetic Vichy France this would
threaten vital allied oil supplies in
Iraq and Iran as well as Hoffa in
Palestine this fear was exacerbated by
the coup of the pro axis Rashid Ali in
Iraq on April the 3rd of 1941 which
again trend oil supplies through the
Middle East had the Germans effectively
supported the revolt it may have posed
an even greater threat to security in
the unstable region should the Germans
secure strong foothold in the region the
political and diplomatic repercussions
both there and in Egypt and Turkey posed
a potential threat to the Allied war
effort
and while Wavell knew that his force was
stretched extremely thin with the fight
in North Africa he had no choice but to
agree to Churchill's demand so he
appointed General Henry Midland Wilson
to oversee the operation in terms of
troop numbers in Syria Lebanon French
army general Henry Vence had around
85,000 regular troops at his disposal
under the army of the Levant this army
was still divided into troops from
metropolitan France colonial troops and
the so called special Troops of the
Levant the colonial troops were formed
by 11 battalions of infantry three
Lebanese light imagery battalions and
eight Syrian battalions in addition
there were two artillery groups and
miscellaneous supporting units these
so-called special forces included around
5,000 Calvary organizing squadrons of
around 100 men each included in the
Calvary force for fifteen squadrons of
Kirk a.cian Calvary of which 3 were
motorized these special units were led
by indigenous and non commissioned
officers in combination to this the
French also had an armoured / mechanized
contingent which totaled 90 tanks which
were mostly Renauld are thirty fives
with a few Renault FTS and a similar
number of armored cars on the naval side
the French can muster only two
destroyers and three submarines the
British on the other hand were able to
muster around 34,000 men 18,000 and then
be from Australia and another 8,000
British regulars which was supplemented
with some check battalions that were in
the region this also included around a
5,000 man Free French units that were
also assigned to the task they could
field around 100 aircraft with a naval
contingent which contributed the landing
ship of the
each of miss Gilardi air five cruisers
and eight destroyers for the operation
the invasion of Syria was to be split
into four invasion forces a thrust on
Damascus and Beirut from Palestine a
thrust on northern Syria and Palmyra
from Iraq and a final thrust on Tripoli
also from Iraq with the to thrust from
Palestine there were the first probe to
engage Vichy forces with the Iraqi
troops invading two weeks later they had
ten set-piece battles taking place
during this month-long campaign and the
Australians bore the brunt of the
fighting for the region and as you can
expect tensions between the head of the
Australian Corps which was a man by the
name of John lavich and his British
superiors soon happened General Wavell
and other individuals didn't seem to
understand the terrain and they
underestimated the enemy to a heavy
degree both in terms of troop numbers
and quality this lack of understanding
of the enemy and the terrain was
compounded by Midlands decision to base
himself in the luxurious King David
hotel in Jerusalem about 200 kilometers
away from the main fighting from here he
attempted to run the entire campaign
prior to Lorex promotion On June the
18th of 1941 whyville meanwhile was
primarily concerned with operations in
North Africa and from the beginning he
stated his opposition to the campaign on
the grounds that he did not have the
available resources with him torn
between numerous fronts Wavell focuses
attentions on the ongoing operation
battle-ax which was launched one week
after the beginning of the lebanon
Syrian campaign which unsuccessfully
sought to wrest control of Sarah naica
from the axis and raised the siege of
Tobruk way VLEs focus on North Africa
meant that the Lebanon Syrian campaign
was now provided with any real tank
support something that would have made
the advance somewhat smoother
the British High Command thought that
the Vichy forces would simply surrender
at the sight of Australian units and
during the first few days of fighting
they didn't even give the men helmets
and the maps that were provided to them
were in such a scale that they were
utterly useless the first set battle was
at laudanol River on June 9th
one day after the start of the invasion
Australian forces came under fire from
well defended Vichy forces on the flip
side of the river british commandos
managed to cross the river after being
landed and they took the defense's but
suffered heavy casualties in the process
a Vichy counter attacked by armored cars
was driven off and the Australians were
able to establish a pontoon bridge to
continue on their advance and they were
able to win a handful of set-piece
battles along the way
the next major action would occur at the
Battle of Kosovo on June the 15th the
last main stronghold before Damascus the
hill surrounded the terrain may even
travel by foot difficult if they are not
on the road and the city's layout
allowed the French ample pre-built
defense capabilities heavy fighting
would occur to cos away but the FICCI
defenses were largely too strong and
over 300 British soldiers had to
surrender after a day of fighting it was
decided that the city would be bypassed
and they marched on to Damascus itself
Damascus was heavily fortified by o'rena
forts and in depth trenches British and
Indian troops managed to capture and
hold on to a handful of the forts on the
night of the 19th counter-attacks failed
to break the bridge in Indian positions
with both sides suffering heavy losses
the initial advantage that the French
Air Force enjoy did not last long the
Vichy French laws most the aircraft as
was destroyed on the ground were the
flat terrain the absence of
infrastructure and the absence of modern
anti-aircraft artillery made the
very vulnerable to British attacks by
June the 21st the French garrison in
Damascus was running out of food and
ammunition
thus they surrendered to the British
forces yet the campaign was not yet over
from here there were three main actions
that occurred at French garrison cities
ones that house the majority of the
still remaining Vichy French troops that
were left in Syria on July the first
fighting occurred at the city of Palmyra
which was fortified by 350 French forces
which had been a rallying point for the
remaining French forces in the area
an Australian detachment managed to
capture the city and they took most of
the garrison captive scattering the
regrouping French after the Battle of
demora
on July the 8th the fate of the French
in Syria was sealed Henri dents on an
Armin sense which was into effect the
following day and around 30,000 miss
lanes Frenchmen surrendered by the 12th
most of them decided to be expedited to
mainland France rather than joining the
Free French forces which was a major
blow to the recruitment effort as was
being hoped from this operation around
2,500 Frenchmen and around 5000 British
/ Commonwealth troops had been
casualties during this month-long
campaign making it much more costly than
what it was originally anticipated
operations against the Vichy regime in
Syria could only be conducted with
troops withdrawn from the Western Desert
a dispersal that contributed to the
defeat in operation battle-axe and made
the Syria campaign take longer than
necessary Churchill had decided to sack
Wavell and early May over his reluctance
to divert forces to the Iraqi war and
Wavell was relieved On June the 22nd for
a lingering command on July 5th in late
July of 1941 French General de Gaulle
flew into the Syrian territory to
congratulate the victors and he placed
French General George gato in control of
Syria and Lebanon
on November the 26th surely after taking
up the post he recognized the
independence of Syria and Lebanon in the
name of the Free French movement after
elections in the territories on November
the 8th of 1943 Lebanon became an
independent state and on February the
27th of 1945 they would both declare war
on Germany and Japan yet by the end of
the war the French would renege on this
independence recognition setting the
stage for the first major incident
post-world War two and this incident
would threaten to destroy the Alliance
that six years of bloodshed had built up
but that is a topic for another time I
hope you enjoyed the brief look into one
of the more forgotten campaigns of the
Second World War if there's a topic that
you would like me to cover in the future
say so down in the comments below don't
forget to Like subscribe and I'll catch
you all next time