Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre

TheArmistice of Saint Jean d'Acre(also known as theConvention of Acre) concluded theSyria-Lebanon CampaignofWorld War II.TheArmistice,signed on 14 July 1941,was betweenAlliedforces in theMiddle Eastunder the command ofBritishGeneralHenry Maitland Wilson,andVichy Franceforces inSyriaandLebanon,under the command of GeneralHenri Dentz,Commander in Chiefof theArmy of the Levant(Armée du Levant) and asHigh Commissioner of the Levant.

Description

Having lost control of the Northern Desert and the Euphrates Province and being threatened with the imminent loss ofBeirut,General Dentz decided to ask for an armistice. On the evening of 11 July, BritishLieutenant-GeneralClaude Auchinleck,Commander-in-Chiefof theMiddle East Command,received a wireless message from Dentz proposing the suspension of hostilities six hours later, at midnight. General Dentz declared himself ready to engage in talks on the basis of a memorandum presented to him that morning by the United States Consul at Beirut on behalf of the British Government. But Dentz made the reservation that he was empowered by the French Government to treat only with the British representatives to the exclusion of those of theFree French.

The proposals presented by General Dentz were considered at once by the Middle East War Council. The council took into account the opinion of the American Consul at Beirut that Dentz was entirely insincere and might be playing for time in the hope of a last minute rescue by the Germans. Accordingly, his conditions were rejected by the British and he was called on to send hisplenipotentiariesto the British outpost on the Beirut—HaifaRoad at or before 0900 hours on 12 July. Failure to do this would lead to the resumption of hostilities at that hour.

On 12 July, the Vichy second in command,Lieutenant-GeneralJoseph-Antoine-Sylvain-Raoul de Verdillac attended the talks. He went all the way from Syria toAcrein theBritish Mandate of Palestineand was escorted by a convoy of Australian high commanding officers. General de Verdillac represented theArmy of the Levantfor the Armistice talks instead of his superior commander, General Dentz. The 21 July 1941 issue ofTimemagazine indicates that Dentz sent de Verdillac to the talks because de Verdillac was more pro-British and less anti-De Gaullethan Dentz.

At 2200 hours on 12 July, the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre was initialled. The Allied forces were represented by General Wilson, by Air CommodoreL. O. Brown,Royal Air Force,by Captain J. A. V. Morse,Royal Navy,and by Free French GeneralGeorges Catroux.The Vichy French were represented by de Verdillac.

The Armistice talks, the first between Great Britain and France sinceNapoleon's time, were held in the officers mess of "Sidney SmithBarracks ", on the outskirts of the city of Acre. On this site was later foundedBustan HaGalil,an Israeli agricultural settlement. Despite the generosity of the British terms, representatives of Vichy made a brief show of refusing them, then dumped the whole mess into General Dentz's lap. OnBastille Day14 July General Dentz, Vichy's High Commissioner to the Levant States, signedSyriaandLebanonaway to the conquering British and to the Free French Forces. When General De Verdillac uncapped his pen to add his signature, all the lights in the room fused out, and so a dispatch rider's motorcycle was brought into the room to light the place with itshead lamp.

References

• Auchinleck, Claude(20 August 1946).Despatch on Operations in the Middle East From 5th July, 1941 to 31st October 1941.London: War Office. pp. 4215–4230.{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help)
• Windrow, Martin(1999).French Foreign Legion 1914-1945.Osprey Publishing.ISBN1-85532-761-9.

External links

• "Claude Auchinleck's Despatch on Operations in the Middle East From 5th July, 1941 to 31st October 1941".Supplement to the London Gazette, Number 37695.20 August 1946.Retrieved6 November2009.
• "Acre Pact"-Timemagazine Article, 1941