April 27th, 1941
Luftplatz Kirkuk, 01:15 - Led by Major Güstrow, the four Ju 52s that survived the French attacks take off for Constantza in the light of the headlights of the vehicles and a few storm lamps. Each aircraft takes a medic and some wounded.
02:40 - Arrival of an Enigma message whose header indicates the origin as the Führer's headquarters. Pfiffelsdörfer, awakened by the officer on duty, decides to wait until morning to decipher it. "The day will be long and I need to sleep," he explains without trying to convince.
06:15 - The base is overflown by a FAML reconnaissance Potez, which takes its pictures at 2,000 meters above sea level, too high to risk being hit by the 20 mm shells.
Von Fontaine-Pretz orders not to open fire in order not to reveal the new locations of his guns, which had been moved the previous evening and carefully camouflaged.
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Fallujah (central front), 07:00 - The 4th Cavalry Brigade attacks the positions of the 1st and 3rd Iraqi Divisions which prohibit the crossing of the Euphrates, where the metal bridge of Fallujah is vital for the progression towards Baghdad. Unable to maneuver because of the floods voluntarily provoked by the Iraqis, it falls into a minefield that disembowels several of its vehicles, but the men of the Yeomanry make progress despite being shot at by unpleasantly adjusted Boys rifles. Major General Clark has the 1st Essex and the Assyrian Levies squeeze in to make sure the ground is cleared. He keeps the King's Own in reserve.
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"French" Front (North), 07:15 - The 105 mm group begins a barrage mainly intended to make noise. The R-35s of the Chasseurs d'Afrique and the self-propelled guns of the 1st King's Dragoon Guards, supported by the self-propelled guns, started in front of the CPLE and the mobile rifle company, attack after a preparation of only ten minutes. On the right of the device, the Algerians of the GTA will start a quarter of an hour later, at the same time as the Buffs of the GTB, on the left.
Luftplatz Kirkouk, 07:30 - Finally, the German mechanics have more or less repaired a He 111. So three bombers take off, with the last three operational Bf 110s, to attack the allied advanced elements on the "French" front. Major Bäumler takes command of one of the Messerschmitt.
"French" front, 07:55 - Even before reaching their objective, the Heinkel and Messerschmitt, flying at 1,800 meters, are overtaken by the four Morane 406 of the high protection patrol, which are soon joined by the four 410s of the low protection patrol. The German pilots fight in desperation, but four are shot down, while the last two land in Kirkuk. The FAML records the loss of the 406 of Lorrain, who parachuted from his burning plane after having shot down Major Bäumler's 110 but is seriously injured; moreover, Staff Sergeant Voilquin's 410 lands on its belly in Mosul. Unrepairable on the spot, it will be dismantled for parts.
Luftplatz Kirkuk, 08:00 - Composed of cars, vans and trucks of various models - all requisitioned with great difficulty the previous evening, with weapons in hand - the convoy that brings the Rasheed Air Base personnel enters the perimeter. There are only about forty men (the others are scattered on the Fallujah side or on the southern front). Kalwer reports to Pfiffelsdörfer that the journey started in the middle of the night, at 10:30 pm, lights out for fear of being attacked by a marauding RAF or FAML plane, "Mensch Maier, das war Sport!"* he exclaims.
A little relieved by this arrival, Pfiffelsdörfer deciphers the text of the Führerhauptquartier that had arrived during the night and congratulates himself for not having done so earlier. The message forbids all flying over Turkish territory, which would have prohibited the Ju 52s from reaching the European continent. The Oberstleutnant does not reveal its content to anyone, but he calmly tears it up in front of everyone, declaring to anyone who would listen that it was not intended for them: "Ein Richtungsfehler" (a misdirection), he says to the crowd. Coldly, he adds, apparently jumping from one subject to another: "Natürlich hoffe ich, daß der Güstrow und seine Leute sicher und sehr ruhig nach Constantza geflogen sind, und nun ein richtiges Frühstück fressen können."** Von Fontaine-Pretz understands and, as a good-natured Nazi, he nodds his head, whatever he might think about it otherwise.
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Fallujah, 08:15 - The 3rd Iraqi Division's position is broken by the 4th Cavalry Brigade and the Assyrian Levies. The fighting spirit of these local troops in an offensive situation is a pleasant surprise. Clark then moves the King's Own forward, which ar able to penetrate the suburbs. Bad surprise on the other hand, the infantrymen are soon to discover that Iraqi elements, reinforced by some Germans, have entrenched themselves in the city itself, behind the river, and are preparing to fight for it street by street and house by house.
Elements of the 2/4th Gurkha Rifles, a company of the Assyrian Levies and a company of the King's Own are transported with the help of the sturdy Vickers Valentia to the north and east of the city to open up another axis of attack and to prevent reinforcements from being sent from Baghdad.
The Strike Force takes charge of eliminating the surviving Iraqi motorized brigade vehicles, including two slow Autoblindas that try to come to the aid of their comrades. Two Italian CR.42 from Baghdad try in vain to disrupt the British attack, one of them is shot down by the flak.
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"French" front, 08:25 - The legionnaires of the CPLE jump from their trucks and progress at their own pace, as if they were marching in Sidi Bel Abbès for Camerone.
Many of them, out of defiance or carelessness, refuse to wear helmets and set off in white kepi.
Anxious to do as well as they did, the Zouaves put the bayonet to the gun and advance from thorny bushes to etic shrubs, singing at the top of their voices a tune that was fashionable during the Other War, to which Captain Félix Boyer, a Pied-Noir***, has just adapted the words of a 1915 march: "It's us Africans / Who have come back from afar...". The troops are instructed to seize the first Iraqi line, then to stop until the GTAs and GTBs have reached their objectives.
09:00 - Armor from the Chasseurs d'Afrique and the King's Dragoon Guards break through positions in front of Nuzi. However, several tanks and self-propelled guns are blown up by mines and others are hit by Iraqi artillery firing at direct sight.
One of the 75 self-propelled guns, hit by a 17-pounder in an ammunition locker, explodes. Larminat decides to entrust the Levant Battalion with the capture of Nuzi itself. The GTB would go around the city from the north and the GTA from the south. They will then go up with the Guards' self-propelled gunships to the northeast to take the defenders of Kirkuk from the rear, with the GTZ, and attack the air base located twelve kilometers southeast of the city. The R-35s have a real break of an hour and a half to remove the sand and grease the undercarriages and replenish the oil levels, before heading for Kirkuk.
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Luftplatz Kirkuk, 09:05 - Pfiffelsdörfer, informed of the results of Bäumler's last fight, sends to the Reichsluftfahrtministerium a lapidary Enigma message: "Dringend - stop - Kampfgruppe Bäumler hat kein Flugzeug mehr - Nur einige Leute uberlebend - Major Bäumler für Deutschland gefallen - Stop - Ende". (Urgent - Stop - Bäumler marching group no more planes - Only a few survivors - Major Bäumler fell for Germany - Stop - End). Probably deliberately, Pfiffelsdörfer does not write that the Major had died "for the Reich and for the Führer" and did not end with the obligatory Heil Hitler! Nor does he ask for directions. His subordinates are concerned about the anger reflected in his features.
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Fallujah, 09:10 - Major General Clark orders his infantry to withdraw from the city, which he had the Strike Force attack, without however ordering an indiscriminate bombardment, because many civilians remain in Fallujah. He will only release his armoured and motorized infantry when Iraqi resistance has virtually ceased. "Dead or alive, I don't care, he says. I want them as flattened like carpets!" Following orders to spare as much as possible the civilian population that will have to be administered once the the Iraqi affair is over, Clark nevertheless precedes the bombardment by dropping leaflets inciting the garrison to lay down their arms.
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"French" front, 09:15 - A violent counter-attack of the 2nd Iraqi Division tries to push back the legionnaires and Zouaves of the GTZ who had seized the first line of its positions in front of Kirkuk and continue to advance, having blithely eaten the order to stop. The commander of Kuhlbach*****, leader of the 1st CPLE group, lets the storm pass by while returning fire with machine guns and rifle grenades, then he asks for an artillery barrage and decides to resume the forward movement. The legionnaires and the Zouaves break through the Iraqi second line in the process. They are now less than two kilometers from Kirkuk, within range of their mortars or almost.
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Luftplatz Constantza, 09:40 - Major Güstrow's four Ju 52s are able to land safely. The wounded are transferred to a medical train bound for Vienna. While his crews are resting, Güstrow is taken in hand by the Oberst Jackenturm, sent by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, who orders him to maintain absolute silence about what he has done and seen in Iraq. He also indicates that he would be received the following day by Dr Goebbels, at the Ministry of Propaganda, to finalize the version of events to which the Germans will be entitled to. "We must counter the lies of the so-called English information," says Jackenturm. "Es ist das Reichsmarschallbefehl." Such an order from the Reichsmarschall? A supporter of the regime without excess and not entirely unaware of its internal quarrels, Güstrow is surprised at the reconciliation of two high officials whose disagreements fueled the rebellious chronicle of Berlin since the seizure of power.
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Southern Front, 09:45 - Ambush on the Tigris. The convoy of paddle-ships, slowed down by a bend in the river, is fired upon with rifle, machine gun and mortar fire by elements of Brandenburgers and Fallschirmjägers commanded by Leutnant von Stroltz. Hit several times below the waterline, the engine room devastated, the PS Eastern Glory is sent to the bottom in a few minutes. It was carrying personnel and equipment for a field hospital. Twenty-six people are killed and ten missing, and the wreck, while not prohibiting it, is hampering traffic on the river.
At the same time, the Iraqis and Germans undermine the northern roads and the railroad. Forced to hide behind the mine-clearers, the British columns slow down, leaving the officers of the 4th Iraqi Division the possibility to withdraw their troops in good order.
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Luftplatz Kirkuk, 10:00 - While all available FAML aircraft - about twenty - attack the Iraqi lines in front of Larminat's GTs, eight RAF Wellingtons attack Kirkuk airfield. In an aberration that led to a severe phone call from Smart to the formation leader, squadron-leader Lytton DFC, the aircraft bombs at low altitude (less than 800 m), while the British know that there is a light flak worthy of the name and that the target is not of the same importance as Rasheed Air Base. A Wellington is shot down by von Fontaine-Pretz's guns and two others, severely damaged, have to land in Mosul, they are beyond repair. The result: three aircraft lost, six dead and ten wounded. The Kirkuk runway is temporarily out of service and the last aircraft are definitively put out of action, but this does not really bother the Germans. Sir Arthur Longmore, in his final report on the Sabine operation, would later speak, without going into details, of a "tactical, strategic and political error" that he duly sanctioned.
10:15 - After the bombing, Pfiffelsdörfer, disgusted, decides to answer the message sent the day before by Himmler. He regrets, he writes, to inform the Reichsführer SS that his message had only reached Iraq after the last German elements had been evacuated from Baghdad and the surrounding area. But he proposes to him, apparently without any irony, to participate, upon his return to Germany, in the instruction and training of an SS commando destined to attack the museum in the Iraqi capital "um den Schatz abzunehmen" (in order to seize this treasure).
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Fallujah, 10:20 - A clear message from Quinan to Major General Clark orders him to divide his forces as soon as the city is taken and to send troops north to attack 2nd Iraqi Division in the rear, "to relieve the Larminat Division and hasten the defeat of the enemy" - which can only fool the naive.
"French" Front, 10:30 - Larminat goes into a rage when he reads Quinan's message to Clark; his collaborators hear him grumbling something about Joan of Arc and Napoleon. As a result, he decides to decouple the R-35s and the 1st King's Dragoon Guards, accompanied by the 2nd group of CPLE (commander de Serrien-Jussé******), on the road that leads to the Kirkuk air base, bypassing the town. Mission: to seize the airfield as quickly as possible and take prisoners.
The infantry and artillery of the three BGs, which Stehlin's planes will continue to support in a noria, will have to be sufficient to take the city itself.
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Luftplatz Kirkouk, 10:45 - Oberstleutnant Pfiffelsdörfer, his anger a little calmed, takes stock of the forces he still has at his disposal: about half of his Brandenburgers, a company of Fallschirmjägers, the light infantry withdrawn from Rasheed Air Base and what remains of the Flak-Abteilung of Von Fontaine-Pretz. He decides, according to the principle in honor in the Wehrmacht, to form a Kampfgruppe that would defend the perimeter of the airfield until 22:30. However, some of the personnel immediately set out to seize as many trucks, vans and cars as possible. We will fill up their tanks and their emergency cans - too bad! - with aviation gasoline. Starting at midnight, in groups of four to fifteen men, all motorized, we will evacuate the base and take the road to Turkey or Iran after having destroyed all the equipment and nailed down the guns.
Having made his decision, Pfiffelsddorfer sends a clear message to the Tirpitzufer: "Sehr bald besuchen wir Tante Irmtraud und Tante Theresa. Hochachtungsvoll." (Let's visit Aunt Irmtraud and Aunt Theresa. Best regards). At the staff of Admiral Canaris, we will understand.
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Baghdad, 11:00 - Herr Grobba goes to the Prime Minister's residence. With an aplomb of bronze, he informs Rachid Ali al-Gaylani that the aid promised by Berlin should reach Iraq within three weeks. But in the meantime, he adds, wouldn't it be wise to consider staying in one of the neighboring countries or, better still, in Germany, where one could travel via Turkey or Iran? Herr Grobba guarantees that the Reich will give a friend such as him a welcome worthy of his rank.
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Kirkuk, 13:45 - After brief skirmishes, the three DML BGs have taken control of the city. The 2nd Iraqi Division, in spite of the harassment of the French air force, withdraws in good order. The Potez reconnaissance aircraft report that the enemy have set up a strong perimeter around the airfield, still occupied by the Germans.
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Swiss government headquarters (Bern), 14:30 - The Political Department sends a message in code to Rudolf Wienerli, in Baghdad: "To answer your telegram of 20/04/41. If Mr. al-Gaylani asked you to do so, you would grant him safe conduct under an assumed identity and would then see to the security of his passage to Turkey or Iran yourself.(Signed) Marcel Pilet-Golaz.****** "
Baghdad, 15:00 - The young King Faisal II and his entourage leave Baghdad for Arbil. This is the work of Rachid Ali al-Gaylani, who, in a last concern for legitimacy, wishes to shelter the royal family until the end of the conflict. His choice flls on Mulla Effendi, a Kurdish cleric, but also a scientist and politician who is highly respected, including by Westerners. The journey is made mostly at night, by the road along the Iranian border. Al-Gaylani does not seem concerned about the risk of seeing the young king into the hands of the French. The situation could even prove delicate for the latter, as London has never forgiven Paris for the expulsion of the grandfather of this Faisal II. Mulla Effendi welcomes the sovereign in his palace of Badawa and invites the tribal chiefs to come and express their support for the royal family.
Divarbekir (south-east of Turkey), 15:40 - Arrival by train of Claude Régnier, who left Istanbul twenty-four hours before. Hardly descended from his sleeping-car, he takes place in a Packard coupe that is waiting for him in front of the station. His driver, Mehmet Yahaloum, one of his long-time associates, is to drive him to Çukurca, on the Turkish-Iraqi border.
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Fallujah, 16:00 - After a short artillery preparation against the Iraqi trenches defending the metal bridge over the Euphrates, the King's Own, supported by the RAF's self-propelled guns, take the bridge and enter the city. Aerial reconnaissance suggests that the Iraqis are retreating to Baghdad. No doubt they hope to block the road to the
capital by taking advantage of the impregnable areas of "rotten sand" (an equivalent of the Sahara's fech-fech) interspersed with marshes that dot the area.
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Luftplatz Kirkuk, 16:30 - The German Kampfgruppe and the 2nd Iraqi Division stop the advance of the DML armor. The 20 mm Vierlinges hinder the intervention of Stehlin's aircraft close to the Franco-British elements, but they also prove to be very effective against the self-propelled guns, and even against the R-35s*******.
The FAML plan a high-altitude bombardment at dusk. Unconcerned with killing people without profit (and although he wanted to finish it before the arrival of the British), Larminat postpones the attack of the air base to the next morning, after an artillery preparation.
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Rasheed Air Base, 17:00 - At the request of the Prime Minister's office, transmitted by a motorcyclist, Iraqi Air Force ground personnel hurriedly prepare the only DH Dragon (parked a bit out of the way during the Bertha attacks, it suffered only minor damage). The aircraft is equipped with an additional tank.
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Mosul, 17:15 - Proclamation of General Massiet to the people of northern Iraq. He congratulates himself with the upcoming victory, promises the respect of persons and goods, and assuresthat everyone's freedom of religion would be held sacred - which is well received in a region where many Christians and Sunnis live in the face of a Shiite majority. Massiet signs his text: "General Massiet, military governor of Mosul and Kirkuk, administrator of the northern provinces". Unlike Larminat, Massiet had remained unmoved by the news that the British were trying to invite victory in northern Iraq. But the expression "administrator of the northern provinces" (for which he obtained the agreement of Algiers without the slightest difficulty) shows that he intended to reserve a trick of his own for Perfidious Albion.
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Southern Iraq, 11:00 - Shaibah's Blenheims bomb with 100-pound projectiles, half of them anti-personnel, the positions of the Iraqi 4th Division. The Gladiators follow them to strafe without any hassle.
18:15 - Major General Slim calls his brigade commanders to his headquarters to the next day's action. Colonel Roberts arrives from Habbaniyah just in time for the meeting. After the capture of Fallujah, he leaves Major-General Clark to direct the rest of the operations.
On the Tigris, the paddle-ships of the 21st Brigade reach Kumayt. They are in sight of the positions of the 4th Iraqi Division. On the Euphrates, the tugs and barges of the 20th Brigade are stopped by infantry and light artillery fire a short distance from Qaryat Al Gharab. The motorized elements arrive between Lakash and Ash Shatrah. They are in firm control of the road and railroad.
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Ankara, 18:30 - Franz von Papen, on the instructions of Ribbentrop, prepares with great difficulty a "note verbale" informing the Turkish authorities that Germany has completed the repatriation of its air force from Iraq, so that there would be no more overflights of their territory. "The Führer and Chancellor of the German Reich confidently expresses the hope," writes Von Papen, "that the friendship between our two states, strengthened by their brotherhood of arms during the last war will not be further affected and will regain its characteristic warmth tomorrow."
Tehran, 19:00 - Mr. Gunnar Gulbrandsson, a Swede and head of an oil engineering consulting firm, leaves the Iranian capital in his Chevrolet pick-up truck on the road to Baghdad, passing through Qom, Marivan and Sulemanyeh. His name is neither Gunnar nor Gulbrandsson and has no other connection with Sweden than being born on the shores of the Baltic. Known in the Abwehr as Georg Gusberg, Korvettenkapitän of the Kriegsmarine, temporarily detached to Admiral Canaris.
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Berlin-Charlottenburg, 12:00 - At Göring's request, Generalluftzeugmeister Ernst Udet is urgently admitted to the psychiatric clinic of Professor Anton-Hartmut Brehm, one of the Reich's leading specialists, for a sleep cure. Udet's stay will have to last at least four weeks, the practitioner prescribes. Jeschonneck, who lacks more character than imagination, will camouflage his absence with a so-called tour of the aviation factories in the occupied countries. In confidence, the Reichsmarschall, who had once opened up to Prof. Brehm about his addiction to morphine, asks him about the possibility of having his new patient undergo detoxification for alcohol and methedrine******** - as soon as he is, of course, cured of his dark thoughts.
Berlin, 20:00 - Ernst Udet's orderly, Major von Ischgl, learns from a mission order brought by a motorcyclist of the Luftwaffe staff that he was put at the disposal of the Spanish Ejército del Aire as a "technical advisor". He must join his new post, on the base of Los Llanos, near Albacete, on May 1st at the latest, after having presented himself to the Reich embassy to the Caudillo. The ultimate insult, that the mission order does not indicate to Von Ischgl: Los Llanos shelters two groups of bombers (20 Tupolev SB recovered after the defeat of the republican forces), while he himself is himself a fighter pilot (and holder of the Knight's Cross, with 52 victories). For him, it is at best an exile of several years, at worst a first-class burial.
* "Holy cow, that was sport!" (Kalwer was selected for the German ice hockey team at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen).
** "Naturally, I hope that our friend Güstrow and his gusses had a safe and quiet flight to Constantza and that they can now have a home-made breakfast."
*** Taken prisoner in 1940 and released by a German "clemency" measure affecting veterans of the Other War who were over 50 years old, Boyer (who also composed Boire un petit coup c'est agréable!) went to Algiers at the beginning of 1941 as part of a medical repatriation... which did not prevent him from living until 1980.
**** A Swiss national and native of Fribourg, Major Jean-Heinrich de Kuhlbach, 35, served as a foreign service in the French army. He participated in the completion of the pacification of Morocco and in the campaign of France. Since Marignan, the armies of the Ancien Régime had traditionally included a De Kuhlbach regiment whose marching song, composed by Rameau after Fontenoy, is often performed in honor of the commander's father, Louis-Heinrich de Kuhlbach, banker and colonel-brigadier, chief of staff since January 1941 of the "national redoubt" created by the head of the Swiss army, General Guisan, in January 1941.
***** In June 1940, Commander Count Aymar de Serrien-Jussé de Doineville de la Bouxerette, who had come from the REC and was then captain, had been seriously wounded at the head of the mounted squadron of the 97th GRDI, where he had just replaced Captain de Guiraud, killed in action. In 1936, he had led the French equestrin team at the Berlin Olympic Games in Berlin. In the Legion, where people praised his good looks and his lack of conformism, he appeared on the eve of the war as the future head of the Cadre Noir. His son Clément, who graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1960, became a general and in the 1990's the boss of the DGSE, under the nom de guerre of Serrien, without particle.
****** Federal Councillor (member of the government) since 1928, Marcel Pilet-Golaz has been head of the Political Department (Minister of Foreign Affairs) since 1940. His conception of the implementation of Swiss neutrality during the world conflict (he remained in office until 1944) raised, and still raises, passionate controversies.
******* Although ineffective against the armour of the R-35, 20 mm shells could damage the undercarriage, and their moral effect is sometimes important.
******** This amphetamine is the German equivalent of the British benzedrine.
