landing along the coast on the first day of battle. On 9 June 1941, the French destroyers Valmy and Guépard fired on the advancing Australians at the Litani River before being driven off by shore-based artillery-fire. The French destroyers then exchanged fire with the British destroyer . The Royal New Zealand Navy light cruiser came to the aid of Janus along with six British destroyers and the French retired. The Luftwaffe attempted to come to the aid of the French naval forces on 15 June. Junkers Ju 88s of II./LG 1 (2nd Group, Lehrgeschwader 1), attacked British warships forces off the Syrian coast and hit the destroyers and . That evening, French aircraft of the 4th Naval Air Group bombed British naval units off the Syrian coast. On 16 June, British torpedo aircraft sank the French destroyer Chevalier Paul, which had been en route from Toulon to Syria, carrying ammunition from Metropolitan France. The following day, British bombers attacked another French destroyer in the port of Beirut which was also carrying ammunition. On the night of 22/23 June, Guépard fought a brief engagement with two British cruisers and six destroyers off the Syrian coast, before the French destroyer retired under the cover of darkness. The French suffered further losses on 25 June, when the British submarine torpedoed and sank the French submarine Souffleur off the Lebanese coast; shortly afterwards, the French tanker Adour, which was carrying the entire fuel supply for the French forces in the Middle East, was attacked by British torpedo aircraft and badly damaged. Armistice On 10 July, as the Australian 21st Brigade was on the verge of entering Beirut, Dentz sought an armistice. At one minute past midnight on 12 July, a ceasefire came into effect and ended the campaign. The Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre (also known as the "Convention of Acre") was signed on 14 July at the Sidney Smith Barracks on the outskirts of the city of Acre. Aftermath Analysis Wavell had not wanted the Syrian distraction, given that British forces in the Mediterranean were already overstretched. However, political factors, including pressure from Churchill and CIGS in addition to guarantees by the Free French that any operation into Syria and Lebanon would meet with little resistance, forced his hand. In the event, the Vichy government ordered it soldiers to resist the invasion and its troops offered stiff resistance to the advancing British Empire