Battle of Sidon
1941 CE.
Shown on the map at 33.561°, 35.398°.
The Battle of Sidon (13–15 June 1941) was part of the Australian 7th Division's advance on Beirut, which took place during the five-week-long Syria-Lebanon campaign fought between the Allies and Vichy French forces in Syria and Lebanon. Sidon, a town of about 12,000 people at the time with a number of historic mosques and castles dating back to the Crusades, was positioned on the coast to the north of Tyre, about halfway between the Lebanese border with Palestine and Beirut. The fighting came several days after the Allied forces from the Australian 21st Brigade, under Brigadier Jack Stevens, crossed the Litani River as part of Operation Exporter. After preliminary moves by the 2/27th Infantry Battalion around Adloun, the 2/14th Infantry Battalion had carried the advance north along the coast towards Sidon. On 13 June, the 2/16th Infantry Battalion, with artillery and cavalry support, was assigned the task of capturing the town itself, undertaking a daylight advance over 6.5 kilometres (4.0 mi) of open ground to reach the town, before exploiting a further 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) to the north.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Sidon (1941), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.