373 SYRIA AND LEBANON 1941: The Allied Fight against the Vichy French

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Campaign series. Examines the high military and political strategy that lay behind the June 1941 campaign when Australian, British, Indian and Free French forces invaded the Vichy French-controlled mandate of Syria and Lebanon. The Allies fought in rocky, mountainous terrain, through barren valleys and across swollen rivers, and soon after the initial advance faced a powerful Vichy French counter-attack on key strategic positions.

Describes the experiences and hardships endured by troops the men on the ground using extensive war diaries and available records to make sense of the actions. The battles in Syria and Lebanon were complex actions, often at the battalion level or below, and this work shows how they affected the wider campaign.