Shipbucket

4th August 1941

The expanded air attacks on the 2nd energised the redeployment of RAF towards the Persian Gulf in general, while the losses to the Wellingtons operating out of RAF Shaibah required urgent reinforcing of the British position in southern Iraq. From the relative quiet of East Africa advance elements of fighter and bomber squadrons found themselves ordered to RAF stations from Basra to Sharjah in the Trucial States.



In London the Iraqi chargé d’affaires was summoned to Whitehall by Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, and was told that “if matters continued Iraq would be at war with the whole of the British Empire.”
Military control of Iraq came under review, and the relief of RAF Habbaniya by ground forces from Basra was acknowledged to be impossible due to the inability to advance the now massed Indian troops with any speed through the flooded Mesopotamian marshlands. Iraq sat on the edge of both the Middle Eastern and Indian Commands, and although vital to both was in reality a peripheral consideration to both. Most rapid action was now seen to only be possible from the east rather than the west, and so military control of Iraq was transferred to Middle Eastern Command under General Archibald Wavell. With a Command already stretched from Egypt and East Africa to Greece, Wavell had no interest in Mesopotamia as well and vehemently protested, to the point of insubordination, against providing a relief force from Palestine. Wavell instead wanted a diplomatic resolution to the situation in Iraq, urging the acceptance of a Turkish proposal for mediation. He was concerned about a united Arab uprising throughout the region caused by clumsy British military manoeuvring. Wavell had already rejected a request for troops from Palestine on the 3rd, and was no more keen to provide manpower when now directly responsible. In a rare turn of events the Chiefs of Staff in London were forced to overrule a Commander-In-Chief, and Wavell was forced to assemble a force to advance from Palestine into Iraq.
The first British troops to receive orders were outside of Army lines of authority, being No.2 Armoured Car Company of the RAF. Serving in Egypt on airfield patrol duties with updated Fordson armoured cars, they immediately dropped all other considerations and proceeded with all haste to become the lead elements of what would become Habforce set to relieve RAF Habbaniya.
Meanwhile at RAF Habbaniya the situation was becoming more critical, with both attacking and defending air forces taking strain from the constant action. Still licking their wounds from the aggressive forays mounted by the defenders, no further attacks had been mounted by the besieging Iraqi troops, but the artillery fire into the base was taking its toll, and the base’s sole pump for the water supply was always only one lucky artillery round from being knocked out.

5th August 1941

On the 5th August the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade arrived by ship in Basra, to supplement the 20th Brigade who had already taken control of the docks and RAF Shaibah outside the city. Faced with the massive influx of Empire troops from before hostilities began, the local Iraqi forces had not taken any offensive action, and an uneasy peace prevailed in Basra. Even the call for Moslem resistance to the British went unactioned in Basra, with the majority of those British troops being actually Indian Moslems themselves. In the uneasy atmosphere the British troops had been able to move between the river port and the airport, but had not been keen to provoke a confrontation in the city at large, being of insufficient numbers to capture and hold the city and still attempt to advance deeper into the country. The Iraqi army had likewise kept to themselves rather than initiate a battle, and had concentrated into a defensive position at Ashar downstream of the port. But the new arrivals now tipped the balance in favour of the British, and allowed the Empire to prepare to initiate action to secure Basra and then breakout to advance towards Baghdad.
At Habbaniya the British position continued to deteriorate. Although the RAF pilots were operating aircraft that were outdated trainers against much more advanced combat types, they were fighting with their backs against the wall and had been raining destruction down on the besieging Iraqis. But the siege was a battle of attrition, and every time one of the trainers was knocked out of action, the pressure on the Iraqi troops was reduced.
The Iraqi air force was suffering attrition themselves, and had also suffered at the hands of the Wellingtons' bombing raids, but the besieging Iraqi army had taken the most severe beating. Dug in on the plateau they had been unable to break out of their positions to capture the base, and had been subject to continuous assault from the skies. Stuck in the burning sun, their morale was waning and nearing breaking point. But relief was on the way with additional fresh troops and vehicles arriving from Baghdad though Fallujah. From their positions the British defenders had a commanding view of the road from Fallujah and successfully knocked out several supply trucks, but sufficient water, rations, ammunition and fresh Iraqi reinforcements arrived to revitalise the Iraqi siege.

Consolidating The British Position In Basra

The 21st Indian Infantry Brigade were not given time to even acclimatise themselves to Iraq, and capitalising on the afternoon lull on the 6th the Anglo-Indian troops commenced offensive action to secure the whole of the Basra area. Iraqi troops had prepared defences around the town of Ashar as their base of operations, and now the 8th Gurkha Rifles and armoured cars from the 13th Frontier Force Rifles went on the offensive and assaulted the Iraqi positions. Both Ashar and Ma’qil were towns on the outskirts of Basra, strategic sites that bracketed the port on the Shatt al-Arab, and securing them both was the vital first step in securing Basra as the rear area for a further British advance.
With natural defences of the Shatt al-Arab to the north, the Alkhandak River to the west and the Ashar Creek to the east, Ashar’s natural defences forced the initial advance on the township to be towards prepared barricades facing the more open ground to the south. The first probings of the Gurkhas were met with machine gun fire from the prepared positions, and although the fire was not particularly accurate, gave pause to the thoughts of a simple disarming of the Iraqis. The only armoured unit in Basra was called in to provide cover to the Gurkhas, using their antiquated armoured cars to rake the Iraqi positions.



Under pressure the Iraqis slowly pulled back from their positions deeper into the town, as the Gurkhas gained a toehold on the outskirts of Ashar. But the town itself was more of a military obstacle than that of the initial defences, with narrow alleys and bulky brick buildings, and little further progress was possible before nightfall. In the darkness neither side was willing or able to push through and make headway, but the Gurkhas were able to consolidate their position overnight.
The morning of the 7th dawned with a push by the Gurkhas, and a vicious hand to hand, building to building battle raged. But the ferocity of the Gurkhas was overwhelming, and by that afternoon the final Iraqi troops capitulated and Ashar was secured.
Upstream at Ma’qil, which had not been fortified to any significant extent, the Iraqi military presence vanished as the defenders dispersed into the field. British troops spread through Basra and took control of the whole city. But control was not the same as securing, and independent elements of the Iraqi army and police continued to mount small harassing guerilla raids before disappearing back into the city.
Lieutenant-general Edward Quinan who had command of the British forces in southern Iraq had been given orders to secure Basra and develop it to be the lynch pin of Empire for operations in the Middle East and to “plan a system of defences to protect the Basra Base against attack by armoured forces supported by strong air forces”, and at the same time to also "make plans to protect the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's installations and its British employees in South West Iran if necessary." With no practical ability to advance towards Baghdad through the flooded lands between the Tigris and Euphrates, the British forces turned their attentions to turning Basra into a new imperial fortress, and attempting to assure the cooperation of the local populace.

Advance Of The Arab Legion

Wavell’s doubts about uniting Arab opposition were made real almost immediately on his being ordered to send a relief force into Iraq. The first troop movement order of Major-General George Clark, who as the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division in Palestine was given the responsibility of leading the advance, was to D Company (Mechanised), of the Transjordan Frontier Force. Stationed at the H4 pumping station inside Transjordan they were tasked with advancing into Iraq to recapture Fort Rutbah and the pumping station at H3. Although an Imperial Service regiment whose members had agreed to serve in operations outside the borders of the Mandate, as a unit they refused. The unit was disarmed and arrested.
Dramatic though the mutiny of the TJFF unit was, the Transjordanian domestic security militia of the Arab Legion stood up where the official soldiers had not. As an advance reconnaissance party the Arab Legion raced into Iraq for Fort Rutbah while the actual relief force for RAF Habbaniya was still being organised. Having recently been mechanised, the Arab Legion force consisted of trucks and Wagner armoured cars manufactured in Jaffa, but as a light mobile force their heaviest weapons were the machine guns of the armoured cars.



On the 7th August the Legion reached Rutbah, and surrounded the Fort. After their enthusiastic drive into Iraq, their arrival at Fort Rutbah was an absolute anticlimax. The Iraqi defenders had closed the fort gates and remained silently inside, while the Legionnaires had no weapons capable of inflicting any damage to the high stone walls of the Fort. With absolutely no response from the Fort, the Legion pulled back and radioed back to Transjordan for RAF air support to breach the fort. In response a flight of Blenheim’s from 203 Squadron out of H4 were dispatched to “soften up” the Iraqis.



The Fort was to be captured and not destroyed, so the attack by the Blenheims was more of a display of force, rather than an aerial assault. After a desultory bombing effort what was thought to be a raised white flag was spotted by the aircraft, and a written message to that effect was dropped by a low-flying Blenheim over the Legion vehicles, before the aircraft returned to their base. Capitulation was not on the minds of the Iraqis however, and a party sent to the Fort’s gate to take their surrender was met by a burst of wild machinegun fire, and so withdrew to the Legion lines.
The Legionnaires again called for air support, but this time waited for 2 hours before a single Blenheim returned, then hours later for a second. The next day passed at Rutbah in a similar fashion, with a meagre bombing effort from the RAF and intermittent rifle fire from both sides, as each just needed to show that they were still in position. However, the Iraqis had also been in contact with their headquarters, and that night a relief column of 40 trucks entered the fort from the darkened desert before the Legionnaires could mount an effective response.
Faced now by an enemy of twice their numbers, with no support for 300 miles, the Legionnaires chose to pull back to the nearby pumping station at H3 and wait for the Habbaniya relief column to arrive in force.

Very nice progress.

No. 2 Armoured Car Company RAF

As the Arab Legion troops pulled back to H3 to await the arrival of the Habbaniya relief column, they made contact with the RAF’s No.2 Armoured Car Company, themselves also in advance of the British column. After having driven 1000 miles in four days, the armoured cars advanced further on their own to Fort Rutbah, taking to heart their orders to proceed to Habbaniya with all haste. While the RAF’s armoured cars based in Iraq were the vintage Rolls Royce models, these vehicles from Egypt were updated models rebuilt on a Fordson truck frame and additionally fitted with a Boys anti-tank rifle to supplement the original Vickers guns.



Revitalised by the addition of the RAF armoured cars to their strike force, the Arab Legionnaires broke camp and followed the RAF troopers to return to Fort Rutbah by mid morning. They arrived to find the British engaged in a pitched battle with the Iraqi armed trucks. Having seen the Legion retire the previous day and seeing their replacements being only 8 armoured cars, the Iraqi defenders had sallied forth from the Fort in force, expecting to be able to crush the small British squadron. The Iraqis’ massive numerical superiority counted for little though, as their heaviest machine guns were insufficient to pierce the hulls of the British armoured cars.
The Legionnaires advanced towards the rising smoke from the battle, and raced in to add their firepower. With the hulks of burning trucks all around the fort, the Legionnaires’ armoured cars and armed trucks threw themselves into the fray with wild exuberance. In the dust and smoke the new trucks only added to the confusion though, and both sides lost vehicles and casualties to friendly fire. But by the afternoon the Iraqis pulled back into the Fort, while the Anglo-Transjordanians pulled back to a laagered position on the western road.
After the sporadic bombing and now an obvious large scale British action, the Iraqi garrison, being Iraqi Desert Police and Fawzi al-Qawuqji’s Pan-Arabist “irregulars” rather than soldiers, could see that their position was about to be assaulted in force. With the coming of darkness the Iraqi’s loaded their remaining trucks, abandoned the Fort and disappeared east into the desert.

HabForce

On the morning of the 10th August, as the Arab Legion was taking possession of Fort Rutbah, the Habbaniya relief column departed from Haifa eastwards towards Iraq, nine days after Britain started its defence of Habbaniya.
Wavell had ordered Major General George Clark, commanding the 1st Cavalry Division, to assemble a brigade strength group to be known as Habforce – Habbaniya Force – for the relief of RAF Habbaniya, with the secondary objective being the relief of the British embassy in Baghdad. Given the need for speedy action, Clark divided Habforce into two, with a flying column, built around Brigadier Joe Kingstone’s 4th Cavalry Brigade and known as Kingcol – King Column – leading off. Comprising 2,000 men in 500 vehicles, Kingcol was ordered to hasten to H4 and link up with the Arab Legion at Fort Rutbah. Forming a column 7 miles long Kingcol advanced, slowly leaving behind elements of two yeomanry regiments to provide protection for the communications line with Palestine from Iraqi irregulars.
On the 13th Kingcol reached Ft Rutbah and bivouacked in the desert away from the Fort, forming up in a huge defensive square to protect against possible air attack. At dawn the next morning Kingcol reformed, and now led by the Arab Legion commenced the advance east into hostile Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Relations

The Iraqi coup had been born from indigenous Iraqi nationalism and anti-British sentiment, but had been encouraged by Italian agitation. The Italians had provided economic and military support to Iraq from its independence, support that Britain had been unwilling to provide themselves. In the aftermath of Italy’s war in Yugoslavia, Mussolini was incensed that Britain had intervened in Greece to forestall Italy’s intent to conquer that nation as well. The Italian public position towards Britain remained cordial, but behind the scenes Italian agents set about undermining and subverting British interests where they intersected with Italy’s own.
The Iraqi coup leaders had developed close ties with both Nazi Germany and Italy in the 1930’s, and although German ties had withered with the fall of Hitler, Mussolini’s government had continued to foster their relationship. The strength of that Italian support had encouraged the Golden Square to initiate the coup. The hope had been that Britain would quietly withdraw its military from Iraq, but instead with Britain choosing to secure its position by overwhelming force, the Iraqi government realised that this was a fight it could not win on its own.
Requests for Italian “boots on the ground”, or even additional military hardware, were met with warmth but not supply. The Iraqi diplomats were advised that Italy was willing to provide further support only once the military situation with Britain was resolved. While Italy had encouraged the confrontation, they were not going to be dragged into war with Britain themselves.
The Iraqis had also tried to get American support through the US ambassador in Baghdad. The ambassador had received a request from the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign on the Saturday after the start of hostilities at RAF Habbaniya to be relayed to Washington. Slightly distorting the facts to record British bombing of a mosque in Fallujah as it was full of the faithful at prayer, the report requested American assistance against British barbarism; “this horrible action which is not based on any human principles caused public disturbances and consternation and that this action will show the civilized world what British forces are doing now against all rules of war of the civilized world.” Needless to say this was not a conflict that had any bearing on American interests, and Washington remained silent.
The only diplomatic win came from an unexpected quarter, with the Soviet Union granting formal diplomatic recognition of the Iraqi regime on the 11th. But again, not wanting to be drawn into the war, no physical support would be granted until the conflict was resolved.

Kuwait

Kuwait had developed from a Portuguese trading fort to become a bustling commercial centre at the crossroads of the Indian-Persian-European maritime trade route. With the presence of the British East India Company, and the stagnation of Basra under Ottoman rule, Kuwait flourished as an independent city state. To ensure their continued independence from Ottoman encroachment, the Sheikh signed an agreement such that Britain guaranteed their national security in 1899. In the aftermath of the Great War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire Iraq, Kuwait and what eventually became Saudi Arabia all jostled over defining their borders within the bleak desert.
By the late 1930’s the anti-British sentiment that was flaring in Palestine and Iraq led to the formation of the Free Kuwaiti Movement. On the back of growing Pan-Arabism, the Movement quickly gained support and petitioned to the government of Iraq that it support the unification of Kuwait and Iraq. With growing popularity and public support, the Kuwaiti Sheikh agreed to the formation of a legislative council to allow the Free Kuwaiti Movement to present its political demands. At its first meeting in 1938 the council adopted a unanimous resolution demanding the unification of Kuwait and Iraq.
The political crisis came to a head on 10th March 1939, when the Movement launched an armed rebellion to unify the two states by force. The response from the Kuwaiti regime was swift and brutal. With British support the disorganised street rabbles were routed by Kuwaiti troops with many being arrested or killed. In follow-up operations Kuwaiti forces imprisoned the leaders of the Free Kuwaiti Movement and disbanded the organisation. In Iraqi King Ghazi publicly protested and demanded the release of all political prisoners, and the union of the two states. But the Movement had been brutally suppressed, and the calls from Iraq fell on deafened ears.
Into this environment Italian agents had been sent in 1941 to reinvigorate those wishing to renounce independence, as a part of the Italian subterfuge to destabilise British holdings in the Middle East. Attempting to leverage off Iraq’s militant nationalism in the face of foreign invasion, calls for demonstrations of Pan-Arab solidarity were made to rally Kuwaitis onto the streets to protest again for union with the Iraq. But with the previous rebellion having been so thoroughly crushed the ability to revitalise a popular movement faltered badly, with only a couple of minor demonstrations being rapidly dispersed by the Kuwaiti security forces.
Italian mischief in Kuwait amounted to nothing, but a parallel programme was also running in Iran.

French Levant

France’s kneejerk reaction to the unfolding situation in Iraq had been contempt for “les rosbifs” handling of their former mandate. But the threat of spreading of anti-imperial sentiment amongst the restive people of their own polity was too grave a danger to be taken lightly, especially with their own oil pipeline in the warzone. France’s new Panhard armoured cars had recently been deployed in two new cavalry regiments in the Middle East, and these units were now sent to patrol the Iraqi borderlands, in an attempt to seal off the French lands from Iraqi insurgents and other agitators. Meanwhile plans were drawn for their rapid advance, with or without British consent, into Iraq to protect the vital pipeline and its pumping stations in the event of a serious threat.