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Invasion
Syria, 1941
Churchill and de Gaulle's Forgotten War
Henri de Wailly (translated
by William Land)
I.B.Tauris
4/18/2016/ ISBN 978-1784534493
Nonfiction / History / World War II,
Reviewed
by Rick Morelli
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Invasion
Syria, 1941 by
French military historian Henri de Wailly is an in depth study
into a forgotten chapter in WWII: the battle for the control
of Syria by British forces and their Free French allies. A sideshow
among the battles raging in Europe and North Africa, the 1941
battle for Syria represented confluence of several competing
interests: Nazi Germany's interest in destabilizing the Middle
East to undermine British military dominance and influence;
Vichy France's effort to maintain control in Syria to validate
its existence as an independent French power; Charles de Gaulle's
very persistent efforts to establish Free French control and
legitimacy in Syria to counter both Vichy France and British
influence; and last, but not least, the nascent Arab independence
movement that sought a Middle East free of French and British
dominance. In the end, Britain solidified its hold on the Middle
East by defeating Vichy France in Syria and thwarting Nazi Germany's
ambition to undermine the Allied war effort.
Although de Wailly is a writer of military history and describes
in detail the June - July 1941 military campaign, he puts the
campaign into its strategic and political context, thus providing
an important document on the political intrigues and maneuvering
among the various participants. For Charles de Gaulle, the Syrian
conflict was an opportunity to gain recognition for his claims
that he represented a truly free and independent France. De
Wailly also delves into the dynamics of Vichy France and its
dependent status with Nazi Germany, while Vichy worked to assert
its tenuous and illusionary independence. He also offers a rare
French perspective on the role of both Vichy and Free France
during the Syrian conflict. This brief but nasty military conflict
put France in "a state of civil war" which is little
known outside France. American readers will find this book a
window into an aspect of WWII rarely described in most historical
WWII studies.
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