The fall of Damascus
to the Allies, late June 1941. A car carrying the Free French commanders,
General Georges Catroux and General Paul Louis Le Gentilhomme, enters the city.
They are escorted by French Gardes Tcherkess (Circassian cavalry).
Free French Forces served abroad. Volunteers from Syria were
formed into the 1st Marine (Naval) Infantry, which was attached to the British
7th Armoured Division. These troops assisted in the capture of Tobruk, Libya,
in January 1941. In December 1940, Colonel Raoul-Charles Magrin- Vernerey
(a.k.a. Monclar) formed the Brigade d’Orient of 1,200 men from several units of
infantry (including the 13th Demi- Brigade) and a horse cavalry squadron. The
brigade fought in Eritrea from January to May 1941, the cavalry unit making the
last French cavalry charge in history (against Italian cavalry).
On 25 May 1941, Major General Paul Louis Legentilhomme
formed the 5,400-man 1st Free French Light Division from several units of
French Legionnaires, Africans, and Arabs. On 8 June, operating with British
Commonwealth forces, the division invaded Syria, meeting bitter resistance from
Vichy forces there. The campaign ended on 11 July. Of the 38,000 Vichy troops
in Syria, 5,331 (including 1,000 Legionnaires) joined the Free French; the
remainder were allowed to return to France. On 20 August 1941, the Light
Division was disbanded; with additional reinforcements, it became several
independent brigade groups, some of which remained in Syria for garrison
duties.
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Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, after World War I Syria
became a mandate of France. Following the defeat of France by Germany in June
1940, Syria was controlled by the Vichy government headed by Marshal Henri
Philippe Pétain, which appointed General Henri Dentz as high commissioner with
a cabinet headed by Khalid al Azm. Pétain ordered Dentz to allow landing rights
in Syria for German and Italian aircraft on their way to support Radhid Ali’s
regime in Iraq.
On 8 June 1941, Allied forces commanded by British
Lieutenant General Maitland Wilson that included the British Ninth Army,
Australian, and Major General Paul Legentilhomme’s Free French Forces, along
with troops of the Transjordan Arab Legion, crossed from Palestine into Lebanon
and Syria. By 15 June, they had reached the Syrian capital of Damascus, which
fell on 21 June. On 13 July, Dentz and the Vichy French surrendered and the
next day signed the Acre Convention. The fighting had claimed 4,500 Allied and
6,000 Vichy French casualties.
Syria was then turned over to the Free French authorities.
The French recognized Syria’s independence but continued to occupy the country,
which was used as an Allied base for the rest of the war. Free French Commander
General Georges Catroux became Syria’s Delegate-General and Plenipotentiary.
French authorities declared martial law, imposed strict press censorship, and
arrested political subversives.
In July 1943, following pressure from Great Britain, France
announced new elections. A nationalist government came to power that August,
electing as president Syrian nationalist Shukri al-Quwwatti, one of the leaders
of the 1925–1927 uprising against the French. France granted Syria independence
on 1 January 1944, but the country remained under Anglo-French occupation for
the remainder of the war. In January 1945, the Syrian government announced the
formation of a national army, and in February it declared war on the Axis
powers.
Syria became a charter member of United Nations in March
1945. In early May 1945, anti-French demonstrations erupted throughout Syria,
whereon French forces bombarded Damascus, killing 400 Syrians. British forces
then intervened. A United Nations resolution in February 1946 called on France
to evacuate the country, and by 15 April, all French and British forces were
off Syrian soil. Evacuation Day, 17 April, is still celebrated as a Syrian
national holiday.
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