Army of the Levant

After this conference was concluded, the short-lived monarchy of King Faisal was defeated at the Battle of Maysalun by French troops under the command of General Mariano Goybet, during the Franco-Syrian War.

Both Army of the Levant and Special Troops were responsible for keeping order in the French mandate during the interwar period.

To a large extent Sunni Muslim Arabs, who made up about 65% of the population of Syria, were excluded from serving with the Troupes Speciales, who were drawn mainly from the Druze, Christian, Circassian and 'Alawi minorities.

This latter force provided a form of military police (gendarmerie) for internal security purposes and were primarily deployed in the areas of their recruitment.

The Circassian cavalry (Groupement d'escadrons tcherkesses [ar; fr]) originated with Muslim refugees from the North Caucasus region who fled Tsarist Russian expansion during the nineteenth century.

An estimated 850,000 sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire, of whom 30,000 settled in Syria and served in frontier regions as mounted tribal irregulars.

General Charles Huntziger, the French military commander in Syria, stated in 1935: "we mustn't forget that the Alawis and Druzes are the only warlike races in our mandate and make first-rate soldiers among whom we recruit our best troupes speciales".

It was not replaced, but a number of other ships, including the Jeanne d'Arc compensated for this decreased French presence in the Levant.

Indigenous personnel wore either the keffiyeh headdress (red for Druze and white for other units), fezzes or turbans.

The Circassian mounted troops wore a black full dress that closely resembled that of the Caucasian Cossacks, complete with astrakhan hats (see photograph above).

A common feature across the Troupes Speciales was the use of "violette" (purple-red) as a facing colour on tunic collar patches, belts and kepis.

Squadron or branch insignia often included regional landmarks such as the cedars of Lebanon or the main mosque of Damascus.

They attacked the Army of the Levant from the British Mandate of Palestine and from the Kingdom of Iraq, recently occupied during the Anglo-Iraqi War.

The latter were brought up to strength by amalgamating them with two garrison battalions of Senegalese troops to form a mixed colonial regiment (régiment mixte coloniale).

[6] The contingent of North African cavalry consisted of the 4th Tunisian, the 1st Moroccan, and the 8th Algerian spahis and amounted to about 7,000 Arab and Berber troopers with mostly French officers.

This brought the strength of the Vichy French Air Force in Lebanon and Syria up to 289 aircraft, including about 35 state-of-the-art Dewoitine D.520 fighters and some new, US-built Glenn Martin 167 light bombers.

While not part of the Army of the Levant, the brigade specialized in mountain warfare and was to be the Polish contribution to Allied plans for landings in the Balkans.