Merdj Ayoum in Syria has been British aircraft have been giving full support to the advancing Imperial and Free French troops. A Cairo communique states that Aleppo aerodrome was raided on the night of June 10/11, bombs falling on dispersed aircraft, on runways and buildings, causin£ a number of fires. Shipping in the harbour of Beirut was bombed by the Royal Air Force ant the Fleet Air Arm.
Sporadic resistance is being gradually smothered by Australian forces towards Beirut, and after Leontes River, where a stiff encounter ended in an Australian victory, Beirut is well in sight, writes Renters' Special War Correspondent on the Syrian coastal sector, French non-combatants confirm British hopes that the capital of Lebanon will not be too hard a nut to crack. No fortified lines or perimeters, they say, obstruct the route to Beirut, and the port itself is completely unfortified, Between these non-combatants and their Australian captors, there is a total lack of animosity, They describe the conflict as "drole" but warn that a Frenchman's honour makes him fight, To this extent, German propaganda has been working at top pressure, and they declare with seeming' sincerity that there are no German troops in Syria, A detachment of Australians landed among French troops holding the north bank of the Leontes River are best qualified to speak of the poilu's fighting qualities. "They tell of a new machine-gun technique which increases the value of this weapon. Concentrated in nests of eight guns they are surrounded by swarms of snipers, and without long
E are impassal Fighters of "and Sur mortar the Royal Air Force are not chal-longed by any French aircraft which have been seen over the battle area only on two or three occasions.—Reuter,
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