SYRIAN CAMPAIGN IN REVIEW

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 188, 12 August 1941, Page 5

SYRIAN CAMPAIGN IN REVIEW

SKILFUL MANOEUVRES COMPARATIVELY SLIGHT BRITISH LOSSES Rugby. Aug. 9. How the Syrian campaign was won by skilful manoeuvres designed" to reduce Allied losses and hardships to the population is described in an official account. As soon as Allied troop.*; crossed the frontier there was a hasty exit oi Axis personnel. The Allied advance was made by three columns star ita'v.' x.isly —one in open country east, of Mount Hermon with Damascus as its objective, one up the central valley between Mount Hermon and Lebanon in the direction of Rayak, and one along the coast road between Lebanon and the sea, making for Beirut,

General Dentz has under his command a total of about 33,000 troops and upward of 8 guns, 90 tanks and a small air force winch, during the operations, was lui'g'-.y r< inforeed. Ge'.: rc.l S'h Henry Mait.and Wilson's troops included, besides British units, the 25 th and 21st Australian Brigades, the Fifth Indian Brigade, a Transjordan frontier force and Free French. The advance ixgi’.t on June 6 when me Royal Navy irate, xi a seaoorne detachment north of the River Litani. After the less of Damascus General Dentz retired to the River Damour, south of Beirut, where he had a defensive position of great natural strength and elaborately fortified. but open to flanking fire from the sea. Mar Manoeuvres. The first stage of the campaign - t Indirect advance on either side of and between the mountain ranges—could only have succeeded at heavy cost against a determined enemy. It was replaced by war manoeuvres which were soon to make General Deniz's I position untenable. In the north the Indians cleared a salient between Turkey and Iraq while the main force advanced Io threaten Aleppo. Further south, after the surrender of Palmyra, British and Arab troops rushed west and cut the railway.

On July 9, the Australians in the coastal area, supported by a naval bombardment, outflanked and captured the whole Vichy line of defence on the Damour. The next day General Dentz requested armistice terms and at midnight on July 11-12 the ceasefire sounded.

At the time of their surrender the Vichy forces numbered between 26,000 and 27.000. There were 2000 prisoners in the Allied hands, so that the casualties suffered by General Dentz's forces amounted to about 8000. Virtually the whole of his air force had been destroyed by the Royal Air Force.

The Allies’ losses were comparatively sligiit. General Wilson avoided frontal attacks as far as possible and trusted to the war manoeuvres. When General Dentz asked for terms, the main Syrian defences were still intact, but simultaneous threats to Beirut. Rayal, Homs, Tripoli, Hama and Aleppo made the whole Vichy position hopeless and there was no course open to General Dentz but to surrender,--8.0.W.