Information about Anglo Iraqi War

Anglo-Iraqi War

Middle East Campaign part of Middle East Theatre of World War II
Palestine – Iraq – Syria & Lebanon – Iran |

The Anglo-Iraqi War is the name of hostilities between the United Kingdom and the nationalist government of Iraq during the World War II. The campaign lasted from 18 April to 30 May 1941. The campaign is also referred to as Operation Sabine. The conflict is also referred to as the Rashid Ali Rebellion. Although it was barely a month long, the campaign resulted in a renewal of British occupation of the country and further fuelled nationalist resentment of the British-supported Iraqi monarchy.

Causes

Although the Kingdom of Iraq (also referred to as Mesopotamia) was nominally granted independence from the United Kingdom in 1932, before then it had been governed by the British under a League of Nations mandate (British Mandate of Mesopotamia). In preparation for independence, a number of conditions had been stipulated under the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930. These provisions included military bases for British use and the free movement for British troops through the country without restriction. Many Iraqis were angry at these conditions and felt that their country was still under the effective control of Britain and the monarchy it had created. This was dictated by the British before independence, principally to ensure that they would continue to have control of Iraq's oil resources.

In 1939, following the September invasion of Poland, the British government wanted the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri as-Said to declare war on Nazi Germany. However, while Nuri as-Said tended to be pro-British, the strong anti-British sentiment in Iraq meant that his government was only able to cut off diplomatic relations with Germany.

In March 1940, the anti-British Rashid Ali replaced Prime Minister Nuri as-Said. Rashid Ali was heavily influenced by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. Rashid Ali refused to break ties between Iraq and Fascist Italy. By early 1941, while he was not yet openly pro-Nazi, Rashid Ali had already made covert contacts with the Nazi representatives in the Middle East.

On 31 January 1941, Rashid Ali was replaced as Prime Minister of Iraq. Italian setbacks in North Africa and elsewhere started to change public opinion in Iraq.

On 2 April 1941, Rashid Ali staged the 1941 coup d'etat. ^[1] On April 3, he again became Prime Minister. However, Rashid Ali did not overthrow the monarchy. Instead, he briefly removed pro-British Regent 'Abd al-Ilah and installed a more compliant regent. Rashid Ali also attempted to restrict the rights of the British under the 1930 treaty.

Allied response and resolution

Archibald Wavell, commander of the British Army's Middle East Command in Cairo, despatched a formation known as Iraqforce under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Quinan. The landing was intended firstly to seize and secure the port of Basra which British Prime Minister Winston Churchill saw as a future major supply base for material from the United States, to reinstate a more compliant Iraqi government, and to protect British interests in Iraq.

Iraqforce

Iraqforce included the Indian 10th Infantry Division, initially only one brigade, the Indian 20 Infantry Brigade (which arrived at Basra on 18 April 1941 and was all ashore by 19 April), and the ancillary troops that a further three ships brought on 29 April. ^[2] The Division's Indian 21 Infantry Brigade arrived at Basra in early May and command of the division was assumed by Major-General William "Bill" Slim mid month. ^[3] The division's final brigade (Indian 25 Infantry Brigade) arrived in Basra on 30 May.

The advance of the Indian 21 Infantry Brigade from Basra by boat up the Tigris was known as Operation Regatta. The deployment of the Indian 20 Infantry Brigade, the "Euphrates Brigade," from Basra to Kut by steamer and barge was known as Operation Regulta.

There were two main British military bases in Iraq: "RAF Shaibah" near Basra and "RAF Habbaniya" the large Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Lake Habbaniya. The latter base was just downstream from Ramadi on the River Euphrates and about 55 miles west of Baghdad. A battalion of infantry (the 1st King's Own Royal Regiment) had been flown into Habbaniya on 24 April but further reinforcement by the Indian 20 Infantry Brigade, moving north from Basra, was made impossible by the flooding of the countryside around Habbaniya when the river bunds were cut at the end of the month. ^[4]

Iraqi moves

On 30 April 1941, twelve days after the initial British landings in Basra, the Iraqi Army established a force of about 6,000 troops and 30 artillery pieces on the high ground to the south of the Habbaniya air force base. An Iraqi envoy was sent to demand that no movements, either ground or air, were to take place from the base. The British refused the demand and then themselves demanded that the Iraqi army leave the area at once. After a further ultimatum given in the early hours of 2 May expired, at 0500 hours the British began bombing the Iraqi troops, to which the Iraqis responded by shelling the base.^[5]

The British had at their disposal 35 pilots and 96, mostly obsolete, aircraft at Habbaniya (of which 56 were fit for operations^[6]) which was a training base and a refuelling point for flights to India. Many of the aircraft were trainers which were modified on the spot to carry bombs and other offensive weapons. On 3 May, four Bristol Blenheim fighter bombers arrived to further strengthen the base. On the ground, Habbaniya was defended by 2,200 men and 18 armoured cars. Ground forces under British command included, in addition to the recently arrived King's Own Royals, the locally recruited RAF Levies mainly consisting of Iraqi Assyrians and Kurds, and these were to play a significant part in the defence of the station and the attacks on Fallujah and the advance on Baghdad.

From 2 May the dwindling force of training aircraft, pupil pilots and their instructors continued bombing the Iraqi positions on the plateau for four days. On 6 May Colonel Ouvry Lindfield Roberts, a senior staff officer from 10th Indian Division who had been flown in to command the Habbaniya ground forces, ordered a sortie by the King's Own supported by Iraqi levies, some armoured cars and two World War I howitzers which had been decorating the entrance of the officers' mess but had been put in working order by some British gunners.^[7]After a hard fight the Iraqi force withdrew from the plateau. Meanwhile Iraqi reinforcements were approaching and met the retreating force on the Fallujah road some five miles east of Habbaniya just as every available remaining aircraft from RAF Habbaniya arrived to attack the reinforcing column. The two Iraqi columns were paralysed and within two hours over 400 Iraqi prisoners had been taken and more than 1,000 casualties inflicted. On the morning of 7 May British reconnaissance found the plateau vacated.^[8]

German involvement

By 10 May 1941, further bombing by aircraft from Habbaniya had disabled the Iraqi airforce as a fighting unit, despite it being, on paper, better equipped than the local RAF strength. However, between 10 May and 12 May the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) flew 15 Heinkel 111s and 14 Messerschmitt 110s into Mosul via Vichy French airbases in Syria and commenced regular aerial attacks on Habbaniya.^[9] On 18 May Kingcol (named after its commander, Brigadier James Joseph Kingstone), the flying column of Major-General John George Walters Clark's relieving Habforce (comprising British 4th Cavalry Brigade, a battalion of The Essex Regiment, the Arab Legion Mechanised Regiment, a field artillery battery and a troop of anti-tank guns), arrived at Habbaniya from the British Mandate of Palestine.

British counter-attack

On 18 May 1941, Colonel Roberts, commanding a force of the Kings Own Royal Regiment, RAF Armoured Cars, RAF Iraq Levies and the Kingcol reinforcements, crossing the river and then other water obstacles created by the flooding using improvised cable-drawn ferries, moved on Fallujah. After nearly a whole day's fighting Fallujah was taken by the evening of 19 May. Kingcol then pressed on to Baghdad.^[10] By the time of the Fallujah battle, British aircraft were operating unopposed against the Iraqi army. The British managed this despite the presence of twin engine fighters and medium bombers from the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and by a squadron of biplane fighters from the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica). The German and Italian aircraft were painted in Iraqi markings (recalling the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War). ^[11]

Iraqi collapse

The British forces pressed on to Baghdad, where the government of Rashid Ali collapsed. Rashid Ali and his supporters fled to Persia and then on to Germany. On 31 May 1941, an armistice was signed^[12] and the monarchy and a pro-British government was put back in place. British forces remained in Iraq until 1947 and the country remained effectively under British control. The British considered the occupation of Iraq necessary to ensure that access to its strategic oil resources be maintained. Iraq was subsequently used as a base for some of the troops used to attack Syria in the Syria-Lebanon campaign in June and July 1941 and also the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August to September 1941. Forward defenses against a possible German invasion from the north were created in 1942. After 1942, Iraq and Iran were used to transit war material to the Soviet Union.

While Rashid Ali and his supporters were in alliance with the Nazi regime in Germany, the war demonstrated that Iraq's independence was at best conditional on British approval of the government's actions.

Military occupation of Iraq continued for several years after the war was over, finally ending on 26 October 1947.

Syria, Lebanon, and Iran

The Anglo-Iraqi War was soon followed by the Syria-Lebanon campaign and the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. Many of the forces involved in Iraq were soon involved in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran.

See also

• Middle East campaign
• British Mandate of Mesopotamia

Bibliography

• Mackenzie, Compton (1951). Eastern Epic. Chatto & Windus, London.  Chapter 8 (pp82–106) covers the Anglo-Iraq war and the lead up to it from the British perspective with particular reference to the activities of the Indian Army formations involved.

Footnotes

External links

• History Guy Anglo-Iraqi war page
• Iraq in World War II
• Iraq, 1941 Displaying paintings of aircraft of both sides.
• The Other "Gulf War"—The British Invasion of Iraq in 1941