LEBANON, SYRIA PLUCKED FROM AXIS GRIP
Beirut, Lebanon · July 12, 1941
During their advance on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in June 1941, the British shot down a Luftwaffe aircraft flown in support of the pro-German Iraqi government of Rashid Ali el‑Ghalani. (El‑Ghalani had led a nationalist coup that unseated a pro-British regime weeks before and was understood to be negotiating for German military support.) The nearest Axis bases were on the eastern Aegean island of Rhodes. The British deduced that the aircraft had to first land somewhere between Rhodes and Iraq to be able to fly to Baghdad. The only possible spot was Syria, which, like neighboring Lebanon, was a French League of Nations mandate garrisoned by Vichy French soldiers under the command of Vichy High Commissioner Gen. Henri Dentz. (The Vichy garrison in Syria was an artifact of Franco-German collaboration following the fall of France in June 1940; a May 1941 protocol allowed the rump Vichy French state to continue garrisoning and administering France’s overseas territories in exchange for ceding Germany and Italy the use of military bases in Syria, Tunisia, and West Africa.)
Operation Exporter, the invasion of Syria and Lebanon by British Commonwealth and Free French infantry, armored units, and aircraft, began on the morning of June 8, 1941. It followed on the heels of a 5,800-strong Commonwealth march on Baghdad that imposed a British-Iraqi armistice. Vichy French troops vigorously resisted British and Australian columns moving into Lebanon from Palestine, the latter a British mandate under the League of Nations. Pressure there eventually overwhelmed Vichy resistance and, when combined with the destruction of German airbases in Syria by eastward-driving Free French forces and a British-led advance on Damascus from Iraq, Gen. Dentz negotiated an armistice in Acre (in modern Israel) on this date, July 12, 1941.
The armistice placed Syria under Gen. Charles de Gaulle, head of the Free French Army. Nearly 6,000 Vichy soldiers switched sides. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s dispatch of troops to topple the pro-German military junta in Iraq and the Allied occupation of Lebanon and Syria conferred three strategic benefits on the victors: it restored stability in a critical area of the Middle East, it foiled German attempts to gain control or influence over these states and neutral Iran (Persia), and it ensured a stable supply of Middle Eastern oil to the Allies.
Operation Exporter: The Syria-Lebanon Campaign, June 8 to July 14, 1941
Above: Movement of Allied forces into Syria and Lebanon, June 8 to July 14, 1941. Australians comprised the largest number of Allied combatants (18,000 men), followed by British (9,000), French (5,000), and Indian (2,000) forces. On the Vichy side there were 8,000 French and 25,000 Syrians and Lebanese.
Left: The fall of Damascus to the Allies, June 18–21, 1941. A car carrying two Free French commanders, escorted by Vichy French cavalry, enters the city in this photo.
Right: Australian troops at the French Aleppo airfield, Syria, June 1941. In the background are Morane-Saulnier MS.406 fighters. The initial 5-to-1 advantage the Vichy French Air Force (Armée de l’Air de Vichy) enjoyed over the RAF and the Royal Australian Air Force quickly evaporated. Most Vichy aircraft were destroyed on the ground. In all, Vichy forces lost 179 aircraft from about 289 that had been committed to defending French Syria and Lebanon.
Left: The Battle of Beirut (July 12, 1941) marked the end of hostilities in the Syria-Lebanon campaign. The entry of the Australian 7th Division into Beirut successfully established the Allied occupation of Lebanon. Beirut later became an important Allied base for Mediterranean naval operations. This photo shows members of the Australian 7th Division, 2/25th Battalion in Beirut, September 12, 1941. The 2/25th Battalion, which had earlier entered the Syrian capital Damascus on June 21, was employed on garrison duties along the coast after the mid-July armistice came into effect.
Right: Maj. Gen. Arthur Allen (center), commander of the Australian 7th Division, inspects some of his men east of Beirut, September 1941.