Anglo-Iraqi War

• 1. Introduction

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  The Anglo-Iraqi War began in earnest at 05:00 on the 2nd of May 1941, when 33 aircraft lifted off from RAF Habbaniya into the pre-dawn dark. Below them, surrounding the base on a plateau to the south, sat roughly 9,000 Iraqi troops with 50 field guns. The garrison they were defending held about 9,000 civilians and fewer than 2,500 fighting men, including trainee pilots and Assyrian levies. The odds were stark. Yet within five days, the besieging force would abandon its positions and flee, leaving behind six Czech-built howitzers, ten armoured cars, 79 trucks, and half a million rounds of ammunition. How did a British training base in the Iraqi desert become the hinge point of a campaign that would reshape the entire Middle Eastern theatre of the Second World War? The answers involve a coup d'etat organised by four Iraqi colonels, Nazi aircraft painted in Iraqi Air Force markings, Vichy French supply trains crossing Turkey, and a British ambassador who had spent twenty years in Mesopotamia and arrived just too late to prevent a war.

• 2. The Treaty and Its Discontents

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  Great Britain had governed Mandatory Iraq since 1921, and the terms of that governance never sat easily with Iraqi nationalists. When Britain granted Iraq nominal independence in 1932, it first concluded the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, which permitted the establishment of British military bases on Iraqi soil and allowed unrestricted movement of British forces through the country. The treaty's conditions, according to those who resented them, were designed to keep Iraqi petroleum under British control long after formal independence had been declared. After 1937, British troops left the country, but the Royal Air Force retained two bases: RAF Shaibah, near Basra, and RAF Habbaniya, positioned between Ramadi and Fallujah. Both bases protected British petroleum interests and served as waypoints on the air route connecting Egypt to India. When war broke out in September 1939, the Iraqi government broke off diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany. But by March 1940, the nationalist politician Rashid Ali al-Gaylani had replaced Nuri as-Said as Prime Minister. Rashid Ali made covert contacts with German representatives in Ankara and Berlin, though he stopped short of open Axis alignment at that stage. The situation became more volatile in June 1940, when Fascist Italy entered the war. The Iraqi government chose not to break off ties with Rome. The Italian Legation in Baghdad became the primary vehicle for Axis propaganda, aided by Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who had received asylum in Baghdad after fleeing the British Mandate of Palestine.

• 3. The Golden Square Coup

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  On the 31st of March 1941, the Regent of Iraq, Prince Abd al-Ilah, learned of a plot to arrest him. He fled Baghdad and took refuge on a British gunboat. The next day, Rashid Ali and a group of four senior military commanders known as the Golden Square seized power. Rashid Ali proclaimed himself "Chief of the National Defence Government" and took back the office of Prime Minister, which he had vacated under political pressure just three months earlier in January. The new government did not abolish the monarchy; it named a replacement Regent, Sharaf bin Rajeh, for the young King Faisal II, who took refuge in the home of Mulla Effendi. The Golden Square's intentions were clear from the start: refuse further concessions to Britain, maintain diplomatic links with Fascist Italy, and exile prominent pro-British politicians. They believed Britain was weak and would negotiate rather than fight. On the 17th of April, Rashid Ali formally requested German military assistance in the event of war. He also tried to restrict British treaty rights by insisting that newly arrived British troops be quickly moved through Iraq to Palestine. Winston Churchill refused from the outset to recognise the new government, calling it illegal. Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, the new British Ambassador, arrived in Baghdad on the 2nd of April. He had spent twenty years in Mesopotamia and served as advisor to King Faisal I, and was expected to take a firm line. He arrived too late to prevent a war from breaking out, but would prove crucial in authorising British action once it began.

• 4. Two Armies, One Airfield

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  RAF Habbaniya was in a precarious position from the moment the coup succeeded. The base's defending force on the 1st of April numbered about 2,500 men: the armoured-car company with 18 old Rolls-Royce cars built in 1921, about 2,000 Assyrian levies praised by the British for their loyalty and fighting qualities, and the RAF personnel of No. 4 Flying Training School. The school's aircraft were largely obsolescent trainers. Of 84 aircraft on the base, many were unfit for offensive use, and there were only 39 pilots to fly them. The Iraqis, by contrast, had an army of approximately 60,000 men divided into four infantry divisions, supported by a mechanised brigade and an air force of 116 aircraft in seven squadrons. By the 1st of May the Iraqi force besieging Habbaniya had swelled to 9,000 regular troops, an unknown number of tribal irregulars, 12 Czech-built 3.7-inch mountain howitzers, 12 18-pounder field guns, four 4.5-inch howitzers, 12 armoured cars, and a mixed battery of anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns. Iraqi officers had initially told the base commander, Air Vice-Marshal Harry Smart, that the surrounding forces were there for a training exercise, and demanded that all flying from the base cease immediately. Smart replied that any interference with normal training would be treated as an act of war. Ambassador Cornwallis, reached by wireless from Baghdad, fully supported that position. Churchill's instruction to Cornwallis, once the ambassador was authorised to act, was terse: "If you have to strike, strike hard. Use all necessary force."

• 5. The Siege of Habbaniya

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  Smart chose not to wait for the Iraqis to attack first. Forewarning the enemy, he reasoned, might prompt them to begin shelling before any aircraft could get airborne, and a single lucky hit on the water tower or power station could cripple the base in an instant. At 05:00 on the 2nd of May, 33 aircraft from Habbaniya and 8 Wellington bombers from Shaibah struck the Iraqi positions on the plateau. A few Greek pilots being trained at the base joined the attack. Within minutes the Iraqis returned fire, shelling the runway and damaging aircraft on the ground. The Royal Iraqi Air Force entered the battle over Habbaniya the same morning. Strikes on Iraqi airfields near Baghdad destroyed 22 aircraft on the ground. Throughout that first day the Habbaniya pilots flew 193 sorties. Five British aircraft were destroyed, 13 people on the base were killed, and 29 were wounded including nine civilians. The British attack had caught many Iraqi soldiers mid-morning prayers and completely off guard; Rashid Ali and the Golden Square were reportedly shocked that the garrison chose to fight rather than surrender. When the news reached the Grand Mufti, he immediately declared a jihad against the United Kingdom. The flow of Iraq Petroleum Company oil through the pipeline to Haifa was cut. On the 5th of May, Smart was injured in a car accident and evacuated to Basra. Colonel Roberts took de facto command of land operations, and later that night he ordered the 1st King's Own Royal Regiment, supported by Assyrian levies, RAF armoured cars, and two World War One-era 4.5-inch howitzers that had until recently been standing decoratively at the entrance of the officers' mess, to assault the Iraqi positions. By late on the 6th of May the Iraqi forces on the plateau had withdrawn. At dawn on the 7th, RAF armoured cars found the escarpment deserted, the ground strewn with abandoned equipment.

• 6. Axis Intervention

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  Germany had been quietly preparing to exploit the Iraqi crisis well before the first British airstrike. On the 3rd of May, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop persuaded Adolf Hitler to send Dr. Fritz Grobba back to Baghdad to lead a diplomatic mission supporting the Rashid Ali regime. The British learned of these arrangements quickly, through intercepted Italian diplomatic transmissions. On the 6th of May, in line with the Paris Protocols, Germany concluded a deal with the Vichy French government to release war materials from sealed stockpiles in Syria and route them to Iraq. Vichy France also agreed to loan several airbases in northern Syria for the passage of German aircraft. The driving force on the French side was Admiral Darlan, who was increasingly hostile to Britain following Royal Navy attacks on Vichy shipping. Between the 10th and the 15th of May, Luftwaffe aircraft arrived in Mosul via those Syrian airfields. Colonel Werner Junck commanded the force, formally named Fliegerführer Irak, or Flyer Command Iraq, under the strategic direction of Lieutenant General Hans Jeschonnek. Junck's unit eventually consisted of between 21 and 29 aircraft, all painted with Royal Iraqi Air Force markings to disguise their origin. A German ground mission, Sonderstab F under General Hellmuth Felmy, accompanied the effort. Major Axel von Blomberg, sent to coordinate Fliegerführer Irak with Iraqi forces, flew from Mosul to Baghdad on the 15th of May. On approach to Baghdad, his aircraft was struck by Iraqi ground fire. Von Blomberg was killed. On the 13th of May, the first trainload of Vichy French supplies arrived in Mosul via Turkey: 15,500 rifles, 200 machine guns, and four 75 mm field guns with 10,000 shells. Two more deliveries followed on the 26th and the 28th of May, including eight 155 mm guns and 30,000 grenades. By the 18th of May, Junck's force had been whittled down to 8 Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters, 4 Heinkel He 111 bombers, and 2 Junkers Ju 52 transports, representing roughly a 30 per cent loss from his starting strength. Near the end of May 12 Italian Fiat CR.42 biplane fighters arrived under the banner of the 155.a Squadriglia, renamed Squadriglia speciale Irak. Their first engagement was also their last: on the 29th of May near Khan Nuqta, they intercepted a flight of Hawker Audaxes escorted by Gloster Gladiators of No. 94 Squadron. Two Gladiators were lost against one CR.42 shot down by Wing Commander Wightman. That was the final aerial battle of the war.

• 7. Fallujah and the Road to Baghdad

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  With the siege of Habbaniya broken, Colonel Roberts turned his attention to Fallujah, where an Iraqi brigade group held the town and the critical bridge over the Euphrates. Roberts formed what became known as the Habbaniya Brigade, grouping the 1st Battalion Essex Regiment with the 2nd Battalion 4th Gurkha Rifles and light artillery. During the night of the 17th to the 18th of May, Gurkha troops, Assyrian levies, and RAF armoured cars crossed the Euphrates on improvised cable ferries at Sin el Dhibban, approaching Fallujah from the village of Saqlawiyah. On the 19th of May, 57 aircraft bombarded Iraqi positions in and around Fallujah, dropping ten tons of bombs in 134 sorties. A ten-minute artillery bombardment of Iraqi trenches near the bridge preceded the Assyrian levies' assault; they took the bridge within 30 minutes and received an Iraqi envoy offering the garrison's surrender. The town fell at no cost to the British; 300 prisoners were taken. Three days later, on the 22nd of May, the Iraqi 6th Infantry Brigade launched a counterattack beginning at 02:30, supported by Italian-built L3/35 light tanks. By dawn, British counter-attacks had reversed the gains. Infantry of the Essex Regiment cleared Iraqi positions house by house, and by 18:00 the remaining Iraqi troops had fled or surrendered. Six Iraqi light tanks were captured. The push to Baghdad began on the night of the 27th of May. Major-General Clark, commanding roughly 1,450 men against an estimated 20,000 Iraqi defenders in the city, pressed forward deliberately, suspecting the Iraqis did not realise how vulnerable the British force actually was. On the 29th of May, Rashid Ali, the Grand Mufti, and members of the National Defence Government fled to Persia. On the morning of the 31st of May, the Mayor of Baghdad led a delegation to the Washash Bridge, accompanied by Ambassador Cornwallis, who had been confined to the British Embassy for four weeks. An armistice was signed. On the 1st of June, Prince Abd al-Ilah returned to Baghdad as Regent, and on the 2nd of June Jamil al-Midfai was named Prime Minister.

• 8. Aftermath and Consequences

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  The armistice did not bring immediate peace to Baghdad. In the days following Rashid Ali's flight, the city was torn apart by rioting and looting. Much of the violence was directed at the Jewish Quarter: over 180 Jewish residents were killed and about 850 injured before the Iraqi police were ordered to restore order using live ammunition. The war's military accounting was less ambiguous for the British. Churchill wrote that the landing of the 20th Indian Infantry Brigade at Basra on the 18th of April had been "timely" and had forced Rashid Ali into premature action. He called the defence of Habbaniya by the Flying School a "prime factor" in British success. General Wavell credited the "gallant defence" of Habbaniya and the bold advance of Habforce with discouraging the Iraqi Army, while also noting that the German effort to send further reinforcements had been checked by "the desperate resistance" at Crete and the resulting losses in men and aircraft there. The Anglo-Iraqi War's ripples extended well beyond Iraq. Britain's fury at Vichy France's facilitation of the Axis supply route through Syria directly accelerated plans for an invasion, leading to the Syria-Lebanon campaign of June and July 1941. Iraqi Command forces, reorganised as Paiforce from the 1st of September, also participated in the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia in August and September 1941. By 1942, forward defences against a possible German advance through the Caucasus were in place. The strength of Paiforce peaked at the equivalent of over ten brigades before the German threat was stopped at the Battle of Stalingrad. Rashid Ali himself eventually made his way through Persia, Turkey, Italy, and finally to Berlin, where he was welcomed by Hitler as the head of an Iraqi government-in-exile. British forces remained in Iraq until the 26th of October 1947.