In September and October of 1918 Australian and French troops had fought side-by-side against the Ottoman Empire as they advanced through Syria in the final stages of the Palestine Campaign. Twenty-three years later, in 1941, Australian and French troops fought each other for control of the same territory in the Second World War’s Syria-Lebanon Campaign. Why? As history usually is, it’s kind of complex. Consequently, this will be an experimental two-parter, with this week’s newsletter being for background and context, and the next will examine the campaign itself.
In the aftermath of the First World War the former Ottoman territories of the Middle East were carved up among the victorious powers. Britain took control of Iraq, Transjordan and Palestine, while the French got Syria and Lebanon, where it had long maintained that it had interests. Pursuing these ambitions had been why there were French troops fighting alongside the Australians in 1918.
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The radical military experiment that created Duntroon
Happy Birthday to the Royal Military College, Duntroon, which turns 115 years old on 27 June. Established in 1911, in a homestead on the edge of what is now Canberra (Duntroon being the name of the old Campbell family homestead, now the officers’ mess), it has been...
An Australian disaster in South Africa, Wilmansrust 1901
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