WThe Battle of Damour was the final major operation of the Australian forces during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign of World War II.
WThe Battle of Palmyra was part of the Allied invasion of Syria during the Syria-Lebanon campaign in World War II. British mechanised cavalry and an Arab Legion desert patrol broke up a Vichy French mobile column north-east of the city of Palmyra. They captured four officers and 60 men, which provoked the surrender of the Vichy garrison at Palmyra.
WThe Battle of Damascus was the final action of the Allied advance on Damascus in Syria during the Syria–Lebanon Campaign in World War II. The initial advance was undertaken by Indian troops who were tasked with capturing Mezzeh while Free French forces were to capture Qadam. While the Free French were held up, the Indian troops were able to capture Mezzeh and then became cut off following a Vichy French counterattack. British and Australian reinforcements were brought up and throughout 19–20 June, the Indian troops holding Mezzeh continued to hold out despite running low of ammunition and rations. Late on 20 June, Australian troops attempted to relieve them and entered the town, arriving to find that the town was deserted, as the remaining Indian troops had been captured by the Vichy French and removed from the town earlier in the day. The following day, the Free French, supported by British and Australian troops, captured Qadim and throughout 21 June further actions were fought around the Quneitra road and the Barada Gorge. By mid-morning on 21 June the Vichy French garrison in Damascus surrendered to the Allied forces.
WThe Battle of Deir ez-Zor was part of the Allied invasion of Syria during the Syria-Lebanon campaign in World War II.
WThe Empire Defense Council was the embodiment of Free France which constituted the government from 1940 to 1941. Subsequently, this role was assumed by the French National Committee.
WFree French Africa is the political entity which collectively represents the colonial territories of France on African soil which rallied to Free France formed by General de Gaulle during the Second World War in order to continue the struggle against Nazi Germany and the Axis forces.
WThe French National Committee was the coordinating body created by General Charles de Gaulle which acted as the government in exile of Free France from 1941 to 1943. The committee was the successor of the smaller Empire Defense Council.
WThe Government of Vichy France was the collaborationist ruling regime or government in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. Of contested legitimacy, it was headquartered in the town of Vichy in occupied France, but it initially took shape in Paris under Maréchal Philippe Petain as the successor to the French Third Republic in June 1940. Pétain spent four years in Vichy and after the Allied invasion of France, fled into exile to Germany in September 1944 with the rest of the French cabinet. It operated as a government-in-exile until April 1945, when the Sigmaringen enclave was taken by Free French forces. Pétain was brought back to France, by then under control of the Provisional French Republic, and put on trial for treason.
WThe green ticket roundup is the name given to the summons and arrest of foreign Jews in France by French police on 14 May 1941.
WThe Franco-Thai War (1940–1941) was fought between Thailand and Vichy France over certain areas of French Indochina.
WLe Juif et la France was an anti-Semitic propaganda exhibition that took place in Paris from 5 September 1941 to 15 January 1942 during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. A film version of the exhibition came out in French cinemas in October 1941.
WThe Battle of Kissoué was part of the Allied advance on Damascus in Syria during the Syria-Lebanon campaign in World War II. The battle is noted for the confrontation between Vichy French and the Free French Forces. The Free French met with stiff resistance from the Vichy French.
WThe Battle of Ko Chang took place on 17 January 1941 during the Franco-Thai War in which a flotilla of French warships attacked a smaller force of Thai vessels, including a coastal defence ship. The battle resulted in a tactical victory by the French Navy over the Royal Thai Navy although the strategic result is disputed. The Japanese intervened diplomatically and mediated a ceasefire.
WThe clandestine newspapers of the Resistance were newspapers created in France during Second World War by the movements of Resistance to the German occupation of France, to disseminate their ideas, which played an important role in the history of French journalism, particularly during the 1944 Freedom of the Press Ordinances.
WThe Battle of the Litani River was a battle of the Second World War that took place on the advance to Beirut during the Syria-Lebanon campaign. The Australian 7th Division, commanded by Major-General John Lavarack, crossed the Litani River and later clashed with Vichy French troops.
WThe Battle of Merdjayoun took place during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign of World War II from 19–24 June 1941 between Vichy French and predominantly Australian Allied forces in and near the Lebanese town of Marjayoun.
WOperation Josephine B was a military mission in June 1941 during the Second World War. The mission was organised jointly by the Free French and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), together with the Royal Air Force for air drops. The operation was initially stalled by a lack of up-to-date information, but ultimately succeeded in its main objective, the destruction of an electrical transformer station in Pessac, near Bordeaux.
WOperation Savanna was the first insertion of SOE trained Free French paratroops into German-occupied France during World War II.
WThe Syria–Lebanon campaign, also known as Operation Exporter, was the British invasion of Vichy French Syria and Lebanon from June–July 1941, during the Second World War. The French had ceded autonomy to Syria in September 1936, with the right to maintain armed forces and two airfields in the territory.
WThe Union générale des israélites de France was an antisemitic body created by Xavier Vallat under the Vichy regime after the Fall of France in World War II. UGIF was created by decree on 29 November 1941 following a German request, for the express purpose of enabling the discovery and classification of Jews in France and isolating them both morally and materially from the rest of the French population. The mission of the UGIF was to represent Jews before the public authorities, particularly in matters of assistance, welfare and social reintegration. All Jews who were living in France were required to join the UGIF, because the other Jewish associations had been dissolved and their assets had been donated to the UGIF. The administrators of this body mostly belonged to the French-Jewish bourgeoisie, administrators who were appointed by the Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs (CGQJ), the structure which had been initiated by the Vichy government at the instigation of the Nazis to reinforce antisemitic persecution. In order to finance its activities, the UGIF drew on a solidarity fund whose income was generated from the confiscation of Jewish property, from contributions from its members and funds from the CGQJ.
WVichy France is the common name of the French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It was an independent ally of Nazi Germany until late 1942 when Berlin took full control. Evacuated from Paris to the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied "Free Zone" in the southern part of Metropolitan France, it remained responsible for the civil administration of France as well as its colonies.