Sidon Suffers Little Damage

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 143, 18 June 1941, Page 5

Sidon Suffers Little Damage

Skilful Operations by Australians

Military Objectives Battered by Faultless Gunnery United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Received Tuesday, 11.50 p.m. BONBON, June 17. The operations resulting in the fall of Sidon were so well carried out by the Australians that there was neither sniping -nor street fighting when the troops entered. The deadly accuracy of two days’ shelling had rendered all the military objectives untenable. The Mayor surrendered the town as the last French elements withdrew and he conducted the Australian infantry from the outskirts, pointing out machine-gun posts and snipers’ nests. The town fell at midday on Sunday and life was normalised in the afternoon. The inhabitants though at first resentful after many hours underground thawed and showed signs of relief that there was no damage to the houses. The roads, however, were littered with wrecked transport, observation posts were battered and lines of communication potholed through faultless gunning. Many officers opposed to Vichy declared that Bidou would have been abandoned without resistance if General Dentz had not visited it on June 10 for the purpose of stiffening the morale.