Armée du Levant

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Armée du Levant ( German  Army of the Levant ) was a major unit of the French army in Syria and Lebanon , which was set up in the period after the First World War and existed until 1941.

history

Henri Gouraud at a parade in Maysaloun 1920

The interwar period

The Armée du Levant came into being in the Levant after the First World War . At the Sanremo Conference on April 25, 1920, the Allied Supreme Council gave France the mandate over Syria, including the Lebanon Heights. The Syrians responded with violent demonstrations, the formation of a new government under Hashim al-Atassi on May 7, 1920, and general mobilization. General Henri Gouraud defeated the Syrian Minister of War Yusuf al-Azma in the Battle of Maysalun and entered Damascus on July 24, 1920. France finally received a League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon in 1922 . It was not until 1923 that France was able to suppress the outbreak of uprisings in the Alawite areas of Jebel ad-Duruz and in Aleppo and gain full control over all of Syria. The Syrian Revolution from 1925 to 1927 was a general uprising across Syria and Lebanon that aimed to free itself from French rule. The uprising was eventually suppressed by French air strikes on civilian areas, including Damascus, from 1926 to 1927 . After the uprising, the Armée du Levant was reorganized. In addition to troops from the motherland, the Troupes Speciales du Levant came into being , they consisted of North African infantry ( Tirailleurs ) and cavalry ( Spahis ), plus troops from the Foreign Legion and colonial infantry / artillery troops (French / Senegalese). On May 14, 1930, the Syrian state declared itself a republic (→ Syrian Republic ) and a new constitution was enacted. In 1936 a Franco-Syrian and a Franco-Lebanese independence treaty were signed, but they were no longer implemented before the Second World War. The French Armée du Levant remained on site.

Syrian-Lebanese campaign

After the fall of France in June 1940 Marshal took Philippe Petain government affairs and the so-called. Vichy regime was established that the German Reich collaborated . The military leadership in the mandate of Syria and Lebanon under Commander-in-Chief Eugène Mittelhauser recognized the authority of the government of Vichy in June 1940, but expressly protested against operations by armed forces of the Axis powers from this territory. With the operation Explorer an offensive Allied troops from began Iraq . The Levant Army under General Henri Fernand Dentz had 27 infantry battalions in April 1941. The bulk of the infantry made up ten North African battalions and four Foreign Legion battalions . There were also Senegalese units and three mixed French-Senegalese battalions. In June 1941 the Vichy troops possessed in the Levant 90 modern tanks of the type Renault R35 and 70 armored cars . 90 modern aircraft were attached to the army, some of which had been transferred to the motherland. Material and supplies of supplies should allow around six weeks of fighting. Some of the armored vehicles in Beirut had been improvised by the army itself on the basis of US trucks. Operation Explorer lasted from June 8 to July 14, 1941 and took place in the territory of Lebanon and Syria. 1,866 French soldiers died in the fighting, including 1,066 soldiers from the Vichy government and 800 French soldiers under General Georges Catroux . On June 21, 1941, Damascus was occupied by the British and the French.

The End

On July 14, 1941, Dentz ordered the fighting to cease. With the armistice conditions of July 14, 1941 in Acre , the Armée du Levant was allowed to withdraw without equipment. The allied troops occupied the entire French mandate area and also reached the delivery of the Vichy-French aircraft. The approximately 38,000 Vichy-French troops were given the choice of being repatriated to the motherland with their weapons surrendered, or of joining the associations for a free France (Forces fr. Libres) . Only around 5,700 of them accepted the latter offer.

Commanders of the Armée du Levant (and also high commissioners)

General Gouraud crossed Aleppo on September 13, 1920

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Provence: The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism. 2005.
  2. ^ John D. Grainger: Traditional Enemies - Britain's War with Vichy France 1940 - 1942 , Barnsley, 2013, p. 96
  3. ^ Henri de Wailly: Invasion Syria 1941 - Churchill and de Gaulle's Forgotten War , New York, 2016, pp. 31–33