23.1. Iraqi insurgency - The Beginning - May 1941
It is not easy to write a coherent account of the Middle Eastern events of May 1941 as they were an interaction between three theatres of war - the Western Desert, Iraq and East Africa. Fortunately we can rule out one theater of war out of this account and this was the British Isles. As the defence of Britain was being reinforced by transfer of Canadian troops and the troop carrying capacity of the Indian Ocean was employed in various emergency operations it proved to be impossible to reinforce Middle East by British means before Unternehmen Seelöwe. This did not mean that reinforcements would not come at all, as can be seen later on.
Even nowadays it is a cheap rhetorical device to say that conflicts in the Middle East have long roots. It is sufficient for our account on Iraq to go back to 1940 when German intelligence and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani made contact in Turkey. German support in form of Brandenburgers was promised for Rashid Ali and the Golden Square and in exchange the Golden Square promised to hold off any action until the situation was ripe to be exploited.
Thus, on 8 May 1941 a car bomb exploded, the Iraqi Regent Abd al-Ilah was killed and the Golden Square and Rashid Ali took power. The British had prepared for the contingency by basing a modest force based upon 10 Indian Division headquarters and two out of it's three brigades to Emirate of Kuwait, ostensibly for transportation to Transjordan via land route. This force secured the city of Basra right after the assasination and began to prepare for a march towards Baghdad. RAF Habbaniya prepared itself for the siege and preparations were made in Transjordan to move a reinforced brigade from there towards Iraq.
Unfortunately for the British, Germans had also prepared for a possible Iraqi insurgency and thus the German airlift to Iraq via Syria began on 9 May 1941. In somewhat similar manner to deployment of SMS Goeben during the First World War Germans deployed a composite aerial Gefechtsverband composed of approximately 100 combat aircraft via Syria. This was to be, of course, an Iraqi Air Force unit. The force began operations by a hasty bombardment of RAF Habbaniya on 12 May 1941.
While the planes and the support personnel were flown in the forthcoming supply traffic was routed through Turkey which had to allow transportation of goods, "medical personnel", "wounded" and those going to "vacation" as part of Turko-German transshipment deal. The ground contingent was to arrive through Turkey in small parts and was to be a light combined arms divisional sized task force. The force, named after it's leader as Gruppe Bader was formed around 3. Infanteriedivision minus most of it's artillery. Additionally German advisers, some of which proved to be less than able cultural agents, were distributed to rather amateurish Iraqi Army.
With German approval, Vichy Syria was also allowed to mobilize in order to protect western flank of Iraq as British counter-reaction not only against Iraq but Syria and Lebanon too was certain to follow.
It is not easy to write a coherent account of the Middle Eastern events of May 1941 as they were an interaction between three theatres of war - the Western Desert, Iraq and East Africa. Fortunately we can rule out one theater of war out of this account and this was the British Isles. As the defence of Britain was being reinforced by transfer of Canadian troops and the troop carrying capacity of the Indian Ocean was employed in various emergency operations it proved to be impossible to reinforce Middle East by British means before Unternehmen Seelöwe. This did not mean that reinforcements would not come at all, as can be seen later on.
Even nowadays it is a cheap rhetorical device to say that conflicts in the Middle East have long roots. It is sufficient for our account on Iraq to go back to 1940 when German intelligence and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani made contact in Turkey. German support in form of Brandenburgers was promised for Rashid Ali and the Golden Square and in exchange the Golden Square promised to hold off any action until the situation was ripe to be exploited.
Thus, on 8 May 1941 a car bomb exploded, the Iraqi Regent Abd al-Ilah was killed and the Golden Square and Rashid Ali took power. The British had prepared for the contingency by basing a modest force based upon 10 Indian Division headquarters and two out of it's three brigades to Emirate of Kuwait, ostensibly for transportation to Transjordan via land route. This force secured the city of Basra right after the assasination and began to prepare for a march towards Baghdad. RAF Habbaniya prepared itself for the siege and preparations were made in Transjordan to move a reinforced brigade from there towards Iraq.
Unfortunately for the British, Germans had also prepared for a possible Iraqi insurgency and thus the German airlift to Iraq via Syria began on 9 May 1941. In somewhat similar manner to deployment of SMS Goeben during the First World War Germans deployed a composite aerial Gefechtsverband composed of approximately 100 combat aircraft via Syria. This was to be, of course, an Iraqi Air Force unit. The force began operations by a hasty bombardment of RAF Habbaniya on 12 May 1941.
While the planes and the support personnel were flown in the forthcoming supply traffic was routed through Turkey which had to allow transportation of goods, "medical personnel", "wounded" and those going to "vacation" as part of Turko-German transshipment deal. The ground contingent was to arrive through Turkey in small parts and was to be a light combined arms divisional sized task force. The force, named after it's leader as Gruppe Bader was formed around 3. Infanteriedivision minus most of it's artillery. Additionally German advisers, some of which proved to be less than able cultural agents, were distributed to rather amateurish Iraqi Army.
With German approval, Vichy Syria was also allowed to mobilize in order to protect western flank of Iraq as British counter-reaction not only against Iraq but Syria and Lebanon too was certain to follow.