Estranged Bedfellows

The Anglo-French clash in the Middle East during the Second World War not only marked a turning point in the region's political development, but also became a sticking point in wartime relations between the two powers. British and Free French troops united to seize control of the Vichy regime's Middle Eastern possessions in a bloody campaign in 1941. But the alliance was an uneasy one, as the British tried to enlist the growing forces of Arab nationalism to wrest control of Syria and Lebanon from the Free French. The European alliance against the Germans was repeatedly strained by mutual suspicion in a colonial conflict which both powers were bound to lose. Drawing on newly opened archival sources, Roshwald skilfully clarifies the complex mixture of colonial political manoeuvres, personal clashes, and Arab nationalism that shaped this critical period in Middle Eastern history.