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Colonel Philibert Collet's anti-Vichy Circassians, who descend from the Russians that went from the Caucasus to Turkey 80 years ago, found themselves blazing away at a detachment of fellow Circassians. After an exchange of appropriate Circassian signals, the Vichy Circassians came forth and fell on colorful Colonel Collet's Circassians' necks. Two bodies of Foreign Legionnaires drew beads on each other, but this mistake, too, was soon put right. After four days Kisswe capitulated.
After the fall of Kisswe, both sides sat down in good Near Eastern fashion for a long haggle over whether or not Damascus, probably the world's oldest inhabited city, should be declared an open town and not be defended.
The western column meantime swung over toward Beirut.
To Palmyra, Aleppo. The two columns coming from the northeast were parallel and 100-odd miles apart. The lower column, motorized, was to strike at Palmyra's airport, continue to Horns, which is an important highway junction with a 50,000 population. Then the column was to take over the end of the oil pipe-line at Tripoli.
Objective of the upper column, of British-led Arabs from Iraq, was Aleppo, the old Hittite city with a 12th-Century Saracen citadel. There, two weeks ago, Nazis had begun air concentration. Latakia, famed for its dark and pungent tobacco and Syria's northernmost port, was another objective of this British-Arab column. Latakia is vital to the defense of 70-mile offshore Cyprus, which was bombed by Axis planes for 48 relentless hours last week.
The Aleppo-Latakia column was believed to be headed by Major John Bagot Glubb, commandant for the past decade of Trans-Jordan's independent Arab Legion and another latter-day Lawrence of Arabia.
Not since the Crusades had the Near East seen such a polyglot host. Besides the Glubb-led Arabs, General Wilson had in his supporting cast British and Scottish regulars, Anzacs, Canadians, Indians (mostly Sikhs and Gurkhas) and Free French. Senegalese, Annamites, Algerians, Moroccans and Lebanese, in addition to Vichy-loyal French regulars, helped General Dentz furnish the present production's conflict.
Sir Henry was reported well equipped with planes, tanks, Bren gun-carriers and artillery, all having heavy fire power. He also commanded an unknown quantity of material: the Australians used Tomahawk fighters (Curtiss P-40s) to drive the Ju. 88s away at Sidon.
Most authentic crusading touch: cleaning up behind the Damascus and Beirut drives were squadrons of mounted English yeomanry, the first time in this war that cavalry has been used.
* Of Biblical renown, sister city of Tyre, the other great Phoenician seaport.