Syrian campaign, fought in June– July 1941 when Australian, British, and General Paul Legentilhomme's Free French forces, all commanded by
Lt-General Maitland Wilson, invaded the French mandates of Syria and Lebanon to prevent supposed German plans to establish a base there from which to attack Egypt.
When
Rashid Ali rose against the presence of British troops in Iraq in April 1941 the Germans decided to help him. Under the
Paris protocols they arranged with the
Vichy French government to use Syrian airfields as staging posts for German aircraft supporting Rashid Ali, and for the high commissioner,
General Dentz, to provide the Iraqis with arms. Some of these moves were known to the British through
ULTRA intelligence, but the extent of German designs on Syria remained uncertain until after the Allied invasion was launched. It then became clear that German interest was limited; in fact all its forces were withdrawn before the fighting began, though German aircraft, based in Greece and the Dodecanese, flew sorties in support of the French, and Hitler permitted Dentz's troops to be reinforced.
Hopes of an unopposed occupation, after both British and French had openly guaranteed the independence of Syria and Lebanon, were soon dashed; for Dentz, well aware that the Paris protocols were being negotiated, and that France's future could depend on them, was determined to show solidarity with Germany. Opposing Wilson's forces, which included elements of the French Foreign Legion, was a mixed force of 45,000 local and French colonial troops, and four battalions of a French Foreign Legion regiment. There was fierce fighting at the River Litani, and at Kissoué where French fought against French, and on 19 June 1941 two Indian battalions and one British battalion were surrounded and forced to surrender at Mezze. But two days later Free French and Australian units entered Damascus where the two factions of the French Foreign Legion fought one another in the streets. It fell the next day and a mixed force of British troops (HABFORCE), including the Arab Legion, entered Syria from Iraq and advanced on Palmyra. This was attacked on 25 June—the Legionnaires there held on for nine days—and at sea a Vichy French naval flotilla was defeated. Then
Slim's 10th Indian Division also entered Syria from Iraq, and Dentz's forces became isolated. On 10 July, when the Australians were within 8 km. (5 mi.) of Beirut, Lebanon's capital, Dentz requested an
armistice. Known as the Acre Convention, and signed on 14 July, its terms were generous to the Vichy French who had fought so hard, and they were accorded all the honours of war. The fact that the Free French were not a party to the Acre Convention infuriated
de Gaulle, but a compromise was eventually reached whereby, among other concessions, he was allowed to seek recruits from among the Vichy French troops. Some 6,000 joined him but many more chose to return to France.
