Australia invades Syria

Chapter 17
THE FIRST DAY
8 June THE OPPOSING FORCES 359
At the end of the first day, however, it seemed evident that Syria would have to be won by military not political operations . The French had shown that they would resist. Consequently, since the French deployed 18 good battalions of regulars against 9 good Australian, Indian an d British battalions, and 6 Free French battalions of doubtful quality, the "armed political inroad" which Churchill had advocated was likely to develop into a hard-fought campaign.