Post by Toyama on Apr 10, 2017 18:03:02 GMT
The Syria–Lebanon campaign (Operation Exporter)
June 1941
Syria had formerly been a part of the Ottoman Empire, but as a French mandate it sided with the Vichy French government after the fall of France in 1940. The High Commissioner, General Dentz, was a Vichy appointee and his forces posed a threat to the rear of the Allied forces in Libya.
In May 1941, Dentz allowed German and Italian aircraft to refuel in Syria en route to Persia and Iraq, which the Allies had invaded to overcome hostile rebellions (the Anglo-Iraqi War). This was the final straw. At the beginning of June, Britain managed to scrape together what she considered as sufficient force to overwhelm Vichy resistance. On 8 June the Allies invaded Syria and Lebanon; one week later, more forces followed from Iraq. Commonwealth forces consisted of British, Australian, Indian and Free French troops.
Close air support was provided by squadrons from the Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force and ground forces on the coast were supported by shelling from Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy units. Concerning fighters, the allied forces were provided with 70 aircraft. By comparison, the Vichy French had at least 100 fighters. The forces were more evenly matched than numbers alone would indicate, with British Hawker Hurricanes and brand-new, U.S.-built Curtiss Tomahawks, matching up well against French Dewoitine D.520s and Potez 63s.
Battle report:
For purpose of variety, and considering the large contribution of the air forces in the conflict, the Commonwealth's Syria–Lebanon campaign is represented by a game of Axis & Allies Air Force.
For this standard 100 points game – the first player to amass 60 points is winner – some creativity was needed when selecting the forces:
UK: in order to have a veteran pilot in one of the Hurricanes, the Kosciusko version was taken; while the single Australian piloted P-40 Tomahawk was represented by a Flying Tiger card working together with the American P-40B Rookie model on table.
Vichy France: as a second D.520 Ace would be too expensive, the cheaper (but with average pilot) D.520 Interceptor was selected. Just ignore the not-French roundels (which aren't even round).
(Vichy France fighters intercept the Commonwealth formation)
Upon entering the Lybian airspace, the three Commonwealth fighters encountered the nimble Vichy French fighters. After some maneuvering, the pilots engaged in combat. The Australian Tomahawk pilot, tailing the D.520 Interceptor after successfully performing a split-S maneuver, was the first pilot to score a hit. Frantically trying to break from the pursuit, the D.520 I failed his split-S. Eager to not let pass the opportunity, the tailing Tomahawk easily crippled the unfortunate V-French craft. With things now looking grim for the D.520 I, the pilot put more concentration in another split-S maneuver and succeeded. The Tomahawk wasn't surprised a bit by this repeat maneuver and, still firing from tail position, scored the first kill of the game.
(Holy Smoke!)
Meanwhile, the British veteran Hurricane pilot was being harrassed by the nimble Vichy D.520 Ace. With the Tomahawk busy dogfighting the Interceptor plane, the Hurricane found himself outclassed by the French pilot. After receiving a first hit, the Hurricane mismaneuvered and was hit again by the diving D.520. By now, the Tomahawk pilot had destroyed his first target and showed up to relieve the Hurricane. Attacking the French ace from the side, the Tomahawk missed. The D.520 pilot, on the other hand, wasn't that sloppy and in another diving maneuver put the crippled Hurricane out of action.
Coming up from the dogfight, the D.520 ace was shocked to see his remaining wingman take a final hit from the second British Hurricane. He was now on his own against two unscathed tough Commonwealth fighters!
Determined to fight on, he knew that he topped the opposing craft in maneuvering capabilities. Quickly, he climbed to max altitude, looking for that small window of opportunity to stab at the more static enemy planes. An incessant dance of diving, climbing, attacking and evading planes evolved. There! A potshot at the sluggish Hurricane! Smoke from the engine!
More maneuvering, turning, speeding. Several shots on both sides missed. Finally, fatigue started to overcome the brave Vichy French fighter. What seemed like a second good opportunity at targeting the Hurricane appeared to be a cunning trick. Out of the blue, the Tomahawk suddenly showed up in the ace's tail and gave all he had. Vitalled, the V. French Ace started spiralling down...
(2x6, 3x5, 2 and 1, what a roll!)
An allied victory!
Epilogue:
As we have seen before in conflicts between Allied forces and Vichy France, the Allies hoped that a brief campaign would be followed by mass desertions from the Vichy forces to the Free French. Again, these hopes were in vain as the fighting evolved to be bitter and hard.
The initial advantage that the Vichy French Air Force (Armée de l'Air de Vichy) enjoyed did not last long. The Vichy French lost most of their aircraft during the campaign. The majority of the lost aircraft were destroyed on the ground, where the flat terrain, absence of infrastructure and absence of modern anti-aircraft (AA) artillery made them vulnerable to air attacks.
On the ground, there were fierce battles at the River Litani and at Kissoué, where Frenchmen fought Frenchmen. On 22 June, Damascus fell.
In Lebanon, the defence was similarly resilient and only the 7th Australian Division succeeded in breaking though, supported by naval gunfire south of Beirut. On 10 July, as the Australian 21st Brigade was on the verge of entering Beirut, Dentz sought an armistice. At one minute past midnight on 12 July, a ceasefire came into effect. To all intents and purposes, this ended the campaign and an armistice known as Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre (also known as the "Convention of Acre") was signed on 14 July at the "Sidney Smith Barracks" on the outskirts of the city of Acre.
Free French General Georges Catroux was placed in control of Syria and Lebanon. On 26 November, shortly after taking up this post, Catroux recognised the independence of Syria and Lebanon in the name of the Free French movement.
What Britain had hoped would be a relatively bloodless demonstration of force turned into a small but hard-fought little campaign. Three Commonwealth battalions were virtually wiped out, and Commonwealth and Free French losses totalled 4600 men, while for their part, the French suffered six thousand casualties before deciding that their position was hopeless, that honor had been thoroughly satisfied, and that they could lay down their arms. To put these figures into perspective, British losses suffered in the concurrent Operation Battleaxe conducted against Rommel totalled only 969 officers and men.
At the end of the campaign, Britain had gained 37,736 Vichy French prisoners of war. When given the choice of being repatriated to Metropolitan France or joining the Free French, only 5,668 men chose to join the forces of General Charles De Gaulle.
Time Magazine referred to the fighting as a "mixed show" while it was taking place and the campaign was little known, even in the countries that took part. There is evidence that Allied censors acted to suppress or reduce reportage of the fierce fighting. Senior Allied commanders and/or politicians believed that knowledge of fighting against French forces could have a negative effect on public opinion in Allied countries.
Anyhow, with history manipulated or not, Operation Exporter remains as one of the lesser known chapters of World War II.
June 1941
Syria had formerly been a part of the Ottoman Empire, but as a French mandate it sided with the Vichy French government after the fall of France in 1940. The High Commissioner, General Dentz, was a Vichy appointee and his forces posed a threat to the rear of the Allied forces in Libya.
In May 1941, Dentz allowed German and Italian aircraft to refuel in Syria en route to Persia and Iraq, which the Allies had invaded to overcome hostile rebellions (the Anglo-Iraqi War). This was the final straw. At the beginning of June, Britain managed to scrape together what she considered as sufficient force to overwhelm Vichy resistance. On 8 June the Allies invaded Syria and Lebanon; one week later, more forces followed from Iraq. Commonwealth forces consisted of British, Australian, Indian and Free French troops.
Close air support was provided by squadrons from the Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force and ground forces on the coast were supported by shelling from Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy units. Concerning fighters, the allied forces were provided with 70 aircraft. By comparison, the Vichy French had at least 100 fighters. The forces were more evenly matched than numbers alone would indicate, with British Hawker Hurricanes and brand-new, U.S.-built Curtiss Tomahawks, matching up well against French Dewoitine D.520s and Potez 63s.
Battle report:
For purpose of variety, and considering the large contribution of the air forces in the conflict, the Commonwealth's Syria–Lebanon campaign is represented by a game of Axis & Allies Air Force.
For this standard 100 points game – the first player to amass 60 points is winner – some creativity was needed when selecting the forces:
UK: in order to have a veteran pilot in one of the Hurricanes, the Kosciusko version was taken; while the single Australian piloted P-40 Tomahawk was represented by a Flying Tiger card working together with the American P-40B Rookie model on table.
Vichy France: as a second D.520 Ace would be too expensive, the cheaper (but with average pilot) D.520 Interceptor was selected. Just ignore the not-French roundels (which aren't even round).
(Vichy France fighters intercept the Commonwealth formation)
Upon entering the Lybian airspace, the three Commonwealth fighters encountered the nimble Vichy French fighters. After some maneuvering, the pilots engaged in combat. The Australian Tomahawk pilot, tailing the D.520 Interceptor after successfully performing a split-S maneuver, was the first pilot to score a hit. Frantically trying to break from the pursuit, the D.520 I failed his split-S. Eager to not let pass the opportunity, the tailing Tomahawk easily crippled the unfortunate V-French craft. With things now looking grim for the D.520 I, the pilot put more concentration in another split-S maneuver and succeeded. The Tomahawk wasn't surprised a bit by this repeat maneuver and, still firing from tail position, scored the first kill of the game.
(Holy Smoke!)
Meanwhile, the British veteran Hurricane pilot was being harrassed by the nimble Vichy D.520 Ace. With the Tomahawk busy dogfighting the Interceptor plane, the Hurricane found himself outclassed by the French pilot. After receiving a first hit, the Hurricane mismaneuvered and was hit again by the diving D.520. By now, the Tomahawk pilot had destroyed his first target and showed up to relieve the Hurricane. Attacking the French ace from the side, the Tomahawk missed. The D.520 pilot, on the other hand, wasn't that sloppy and in another diving maneuver put the crippled Hurricane out of action.
Coming up from the dogfight, the D.520 ace was shocked to see his remaining wingman take a final hit from the second British Hurricane. He was now on his own against two unscathed tough Commonwealth fighters!
Determined to fight on, he knew that he topped the opposing craft in maneuvering capabilities. Quickly, he climbed to max altitude, looking for that small window of opportunity to stab at the more static enemy planes. An incessant dance of diving, climbing, attacking and evading planes evolved. There! A potshot at the sluggish Hurricane! Smoke from the engine!
More maneuvering, turning, speeding. Several shots on both sides missed. Finally, fatigue started to overcome the brave Vichy French fighter. What seemed like a second good opportunity at targeting the Hurricane appeared to be a cunning trick. Out of the blue, the Tomahawk suddenly showed up in the ace's tail and gave all he had. Vitalled, the V. French Ace started spiralling down...
(2x6, 3x5, 2 and 1, what a roll!)
An allied victory!
Epilogue:
As we have seen before in conflicts between Allied forces and Vichy France, the Allies hoped that a brief campaign would be followed by mass desertions from the Vichy forces to the Free French. Again, these hopes were in vain as the fighting evolved to be bitter and hard.
The initial advantage that the Vichy French Air Force (Armée de l'Air de Vichy) enjoyed did not last long. The Vichy French lost most of their aircraft during the campaign. The majority of the lost aircraft were destroyed on the ground, where the flat terrain, absence of infrastructure and absence of modern anti-aircraft (AA) artillery made them vulnerable to air attacks.
On the ground, there were fierce battles at the River Litani and at Kissoué, where Frenchmen fought Frenchmen. On 22 June, Damascus fell.
In Lebanon, the defence was similarly resilient and only the 7th Australian Division succeeded in breaking though, supported by naval gunfire south of Beirut. On 10 July, as the Australian 21st Brigade was on the verge of entering Beirut, Dentz sought an armistice. At one minute past midnight on 12 July, a ceasefire came into effect. To all intents and purposes, this ended the campaign and an armistice known as Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre (also known as the "Convention of Acre") was signed on 14 July at the "Sidney Smith Barracks" on the outskirts of the city of Acre.
Free French General Georges Catroux was placed in control of Syria and Lebanon. On 26 November, shortly after taking up this post, Catroux recognised the independence of Syria and Lebanon in the name of the Free French movement.
What Britain had hoped would be a relatively bloodless demonstration of force turned into a small but hard-fought little campaign. Three Commonwealth battalions were virtually wiped out, and Commonwealth and Free French losses totalled 4600 men, while for their part, the French suffered six thousand casualties before deciding that their position was hopeless, that honor had been thoroughly satisfied, and that they could lay down their arms. To put these figures into perspective, British losses suffered in the concurrent Operation Battleaxe conducted against Rommel totalled only 969 officers and men.
At the end of the campaign, Britain had gained 37,736 Vichy French prisoners of war. When given the choice of being repatriated to Metropolitan France or joining the Free French, only 5,668 men chose to join the forces of General Charles De Gaulle.
Time Magazine referred to the fighting as a "mixed show" while it was taking place and the campaign was little known, even in the countries that took part. There is evidence that Allied censors acted to suppress or reduce reportage of the fierce fighting. Senior Allied commanders and/or politicians believed that knowledge of fighting against French forces could have a negative effect on public opinion in Allied countries.
Anyhow, with history manipulated or not, Operation Exporter remains as one of the lesser known chapters of World War II.