Word: syrian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first word that Germany had declared war on Russia came in over the radio at five minutes past twelve New York time Sunday morning. By that time, 800,000 TIME covers were all printed with the anticipation that the big story of the week would probably be the Syrian campaign. But since the Russian situation was hot (as a matter of fact, if you will look in TIME last September you will see we practically predicted the Russian-German war then), we had cover plates standing in Donnelley's plant all ready to slam on the press...
Compared to the razzle-dazzle, full-blast Russo-German world series. General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson's Syrian campaign last week seemed like a bland rural cricket match with luncheon intervals and time out for tea. But with Damascus fallen, Beirut tottering, Palmyra (Tadmor) encircled and a drive on for the important road junctions and airport at Horns, it looked as though the match would soon be won by Sir Henry's British-Free French team...
Strong indication that the game would end shortly was seen in the arrival at Ankara last week of the Vichy Cabinet's Undersecretary Jacques Gabriel Benoist-Méchin, reportedly to arrange an evacuation of 20,000 Vichy troops over the Turkish-Syrian border...
...loaded as a land mine, and there were two big reasons why Sir Henry was not staging it as the Nazis would: 1) to the Arabs Damascus is the "Pearl of the East" and had to be handled gently; 2) if French public opinion were sufficiently roused by the Syrian invasion, Vichy might be encouraged to loose its remaining fleet, particularly its submarines, against the British. A desire to urge Vichy to this step was believed to account for the Axis' not only keeping hands off Syria, but apparently withdrawing forces it already had there...
...strategic loss was severe, and last week the British felt the full force of that loss. British war vessels, trying to cooperate in the Syrian adventure (see p. 28) as they had along the Libyan littoral, took a pasting from the air. So did Matrûh, the British base of operations in Egypt's Western Desert. So did Alexandria and To bruch and Haifa. The blow to home morale was heavy; the first airborne invasion of an island was not easy for islanders to for get. But the biggest shock was the expense of losing Crete...