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Syria–Lebanon Campaign

Syria–Lebanon campaign
Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II
AUS Sidon 1941.jpg
Australian troops among the ruins of the old Crusader castle at Sidon, Lebanon, July 1941
Date 8 June – 14 July 1941
Location Syria and Lebanon
Result British–Free French victory
Territorial
changes
Syria and Lebanon taken over by Free France
Belligerents

 Australia
 United Kingdom

 Free France

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia

 Vichy France


 Germany
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Archibald Wavell
United Kingdom Henry Maitland Wilson
Australia John Lavarack
Free France Paul Legentilhomme
Czechoslovakia Karel Klapálek
Vichy France Henri Dentz
Strength
~34,000 troops
50+ aircraft
1 landing ship
5 cruisers
8 destroyers
45,000 troops
90 tanks
289 aircraft
2 destroyers
3 submarines
Casualties and losses
c. 4,652
Australian: 1,552
Free French: c. 1,300
British and Indian: 1,800, 1,200 POW, 3,150 sick
27 aircraft
6,352 (Vichy figures)
8,912 (British figures)
179 aircraft
1 submarine sunk
5,668 defectors

 Australia
 United Kingdom

 Free France

 Vichy France

The Syria–Lebanon campaign, also known as Operation Exporter, was the British invasion of Vichy French Syria and Lebanon from June–July 1941, during World War II. The French had ceded autonomy to Syria in September 1936, with the right to maintain armed forces and two airfields in the territory.

On 1 April 1941, the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état had taken place and Iraq had come under the control of Iraqi nationalists led by Rashid Ali, who appealed for German support and the Anglo-Iraqi War (2–31 May 1941) led to the overthrow of the Ali regime and the installation of a British puppet government. The British invaded Syria and Lebanon in June, to prevent Nazi Germany from using the Vichy French-controlled Syrian Republic and French Lebanon as bases for attacks on the Kingdom of Egypt, during an invasion scare in the aftermath the German victories in the Battle of Greece (6–30 April 1941) and the Battle of Crete (20 May – 1 June). In the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) in North Africa, the British were preparing Operation Battleaxe to relieve the Siege of Tobruk and were fighting the East African Campaign (10 June 1940 – 27 November 1941) in Ethiopia and Eritrea.


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