Sergeant Davis and his patrol

The commander of the Australian 2/31st Battalion first heard the story about Sergeant Davis and his patrol on the morning of 9 June 1941. Davis and his men only returned later on 9 June. Sergeant Davis had been sent out in the night of 7 June to reach the bridge over the Litani river and keep the bridge from being demolished. Davis moved out from Metulla. There was Davis and eight men, two of whom were Palestinian guides. The moved through the hills and found a phone line and cut it. A Palestinian guide accidentally shot himself in the hip, but he told that he wanted to keep moving forward. There was a large bridge and a smaller bridge over the river. They reached the smaller bridge by 4:30am. They heard a dog bark and then saw a French sentry walk out to the road. The Australians first thought to take the sentry by force without shooting, but then the sentry loaded his rifle and pointed it at them. He fired at them and missed and was answered by the Australians and was wounded. Davis and his men rushed the guard house and took two soldiers in their pajamas. They found the wire to the demolition charges and cut it. After doing that, they tossed the charges and the wire into the river below. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Australian Official History.