Syria campaign (1941). Following the fall of France, the British attempted to neutralize the powerful French Mediterranean fleet by bombardment at Oran and Mers-el-Kebir. At the other end of the Mediterranean the situation became even more fraught after defeats in Greece, Crete, and North Africa in March-May 1941. At the post WW I division of the Ottoman empire, the French had obtained the mandate for Syria and Lebanon, while the British got Palestine, Transjordan (now Jordan), and Iraq. From the last, Britain obtained much of her oil, while ever since Megiddo Palestine has been the military crossroads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Thus when Vichy granted the Germans facilities in Syria, this was seen as a fang poised over the British jugular.
In addition, German and Italian agents had been very active in the area, and while Prince Abdallah of Iraq was pro-British, his PM Rashid Ali was pro-Nazi and brought tensions to a head in early May 1941 by attacking British garrisons at Basra and Habbaniya and inviting the Germans to establish an airbase in the oil town of Mosul, on the Tigris. This was dealt with briskly, but the situation in Syria was much more serious. Pan-Arabist and anti-British sentiment was being stoked by Shukri-al-Kuwatli, while the 35, 000-strong Vichy forces stationed there threatened to tilt the balance of power in the Mediterranean in Germany's direction. There was a real danger that if the Germans were given time, they would be able to develop a twin-pronged threat to Iraq and to the forces defending Egypt against Rommel.
Wavell could not accept the risk and ordered a four-pronged pre-emptive invasion of Syria from Palestine and Iraq by 20, 000 men under the command of Gen Sir Henry (Jumbo) Wilson, begun on 8 June 1941. These were the British 1st Cavalry Division (some of whom were still on horses), an Australian infantry division, an Indian motorized infantry brigade, and some Free French units, as well as volunteers from the Jewish settlements in Palestine including Dayan, who was to lose his eye in this campaign. The main objectives were to seize Damascus, Beirut, and Palmyra, and it was hoped that the Vichy forces, including elements of the French Foreign Legion, would not resist.
They did, ferociously, in great measure to show that despite the humiliation of 1940, French soldiers could still fight. Little opposition was encountered at first, but resistance stiffened along the Litani river and Vichy troops counter-attacked at Merjayun and Kuneitra. Gradually they gave way, but the Indian brigade was so severely mauled attacking Damascus that it was out of action for six months afterwards. Damascus was taken in a second attack on 21 June by Free French forces under Gen Georges Catroux, a civil war with friends and family members fighting each other. Battles continued for five weeks until Beirut fell on 11 July and the Vichy commander Gen Henri Dentz surrendered. Honour satisfied, a minority of Dentz's troops subsequently transferred to Free French command under Catroux and saw action in the North Africa, Italy, and North-West Europe campaigns.
— Peter Caddick-Adams
