Feature Article (Jun 05)

An Uncommon Valour: The Battle of Habbaniyah

Part Six: Room to Breathe

With the destruction of the Iraqi motorized column, effectively, the siege of Habbaniya was over. Although Habbaniya would incur sporadic air attacks, the defenders and civilians of RAF Habbaniya no longer had to fear being overrun and the constant shelling to go along with it. As B.A. Casey stated, "the greatest benefit enjoyed by the garrison was psychological - a feeling of freedom and of now having room to breathe."

Even as the aircraft of the No.4 SFTS were finishing up their work on the Iraqi convoy outside of Fallujah, the harried defenders of Habbaniya were finally enjoying the opportunity to catch their breath. Now, without the constant threat of artillery or even machine guns which could easily rake the area from their plateau positions, the Soldiers, Airmen and civilians could now concentrate on things other than scurrying around camp for dear life. Aircraft could be repaired and put back into service at leisure instead of being abandoned on the open airfield; Soldiers could now get some well deserved rest and eat a well prepared meal. Hunters were sent out to what is present day "Coolie Camp" to fetch cattle to augment the depleted food stocks in the cantonment. RAF transports could safely land on the airfield and evacuate civilians in larger numbers. As B.A. Casey reported:

[S]ome civilians had already been evacuated under fire during the battle itself – It is a remarkable fact that no single casualty during these operations was sustained by the women and children being evacuated. By the 8th of May all British women and children in Habbaniya, with the exception of the Nursing Sisters at the Hospital, together with a considerable number of sick and wounded, had been safely removed by air from the Cantonment.

Salvage crews would begin to sweep the plateau looking for usable war supplies and abandoned Iraqi equipment. An incredible amount of material was simply abandoned by the Iraqis on the plateau. The British and Assyrian defenders of Habbaniya would spend the next several days conducting recovery operations and guarding Iraqi prisoners as they buried their dead, preventing disease from spreading. The burial of the dead would take until 10 May.

The captured Iraqi equipment was promptly put to use by the British, who, reinforced by a brigade sized element sent from Palestine, would later successfully fight to capture Fallujah and subsequently Baghdad in order to evict Rashid Ali and reinstate the rightful Iraqi Regent and Prime Minister. Now lavishly equipped with numerous trucks, machine guns and enough artillery pieces to form a composite battery, the defenders of Habbaniya would themselves be going on the offensive in about two weeks with the assault on Fallujah beginning on May 18th.

The RAF would continue to reinforce the number of aircraft at Habbaniya, with numerous squadrons consisting of considerably newer aircraft arriving daily. Soon the airfield was bursting with aircraft and Blenheim bombers and new, long-range Hurricane fighters were among the types that lined the parking apron of Habbaniya, making for a most impressive sight. The Air Striking Force would remain as the primary defensive arm, with the Blenheims and Hurricanes venturing further out, seeking Iraqi targets at Mosul and Rashid airfield in Baghdad. The famed P-40 "Kitty-hawk" would make its first ever combat debut during this time, attacking Vichy French airfields in Syria, who were sympathetic to the Axis and had allowed German warplanes to stop and refuel on their way to Mosul. The Valentias of the Communications flight were also very busy during this time, flying re-supply missions to the various British outposts that for the past couple of weeks had to make do with very limited supplies.

The recovery effort was well documented by a Soldier serving with the Assyrian Rifle Squadron. He writes:

05/07/1941
At daybreak Sinn El Dhibban and the neighbouring high ground were re-occupied by a platoon of 4 coy. When they were in position a composite platoon from the Reserve carried out salvage operations in the area. Six 3.7 Hows, 4 A/Cars, a large number of A/T and automatic weapons as well as many vehicles - all in good condition - were salvaged.

05/08/1941
Salvage work was carried out as before - protected by a composite Company and A/cars. Assyrian levies provided an escort for the prisoners of war who were well occupied burying their dead. Capt. Armstrong went across the river again to try and locate enemy guns, which were wrongly reported from the air as being still in position on the Burma Bund. A pl. from No.4 Coy moved out to Canal Turn to form a standing patrol at dusk. Captain Armstrong, leading the patrol from north of the river, brought back an enemy car and several rounds of 3.7 Howitzer ammunition with spare parts. The heavily laden car had to be dragged for several miles along the top of the Bund until it could be put on planks laid across small boats which were lashed together and ferried across the river Euphrates, which was at high flood.

Conclusion

Although what some may call a "minor" tactical victory, the Battle of Habbaniya must not be seen through that prism. In the grand scheme of things, the victory of the No.4 SFTS and the King's Own with their Assyrian counterparts, over a vastly more powerful Iraqi army, was a huge strategic victory. Although Germany did, in fact, contribute a token force of ME-110 Fighter Bombers and Heinkel HE-111 Bombers hastily painted in Iraqi regalia, their 13 May arrival in Mosul, a full week after the Iraqi rout, meant that they had, in fact, arrived too little too late to affect the outcome of the battle. During the course of the fight, the RAF would suffer 34 Airmen killed in action, along with 64 wounded. Four cadets suffered nervous breakdowns.

In his bestselling classic, "The Rise and fall of the Third Reich", William L. Shirer clearly illustrates Hitler's blunder at not grabbing the Iraqi oil fields that Rashid Ali had offered at so little a cost:

Churchill was writing President Roosevelt about the grave consequences of losing Egypt and the Middle-East and pleading for America to enter the war. The Prime Minister was in one of the darkest moods he was to know throughout the war: "I adjure you, Mr. President [He wrote], not to underestimate the gravity of the consequences which may follow from a Middle-East collapse... [Regarding Hitler's obsession with Russia,] the destruction of the Soviet Union came first; all else must wait. This, we can now see, was a staggering blunder. At this moment, the end of May 1941, Hitler, with the use of only a fraction of his forces, could have dealt the British Empire a crushing blow, perhaps a fatal one. No one realized this better than the hard-pressed Churchill. In his message to President Roosevelt on May 4th, he had admitted that, were Egypt and the Middle-East to be lost, the continuation of the war "would be a hard, long and bleak proposition", even if the United States had entered the conflict. But Hitler did not understand this.

Sir Winston Churchill, writing in his World War II memoirs "The Grand Alliance", puts it this way:

Thus the German plan for raising rebellion in Iraq and mastering cheaply this wide area was frustrated on a small margin. The landing of an Indian brigade at Basra on April 18 was timely. It forced Rashid Ali into premature action. Even so there was a race with our meagre forces against time. The spirited defence of Habbaniya by the Flying School was a prime factor in our success. [Emphasis mine] The Germans had of course at their disposal an airborne force which would have given them at this time Syria, Iraq, and Persia, with their precious oil-fields. Hitler's hand might have reached out very far towards India, and beckoned to Japan. He had chosen however ... to employ and expend his prime air organism in another direction. We often hear military experts inculcate the doctrine of giving priority to the decisive theatre. There is a lot in this. But in war this principle, like all others, is governed by facts and circumstances; otherwise strategy would be too easy. It would become a drill-book and not an art; it would depend upon rules and not on an instructed and fortunate judgment of the proportions of an ever-changing scene. Hitler certainly cast away the opportunity of taking a great prize for little cost in the Middle East. We in Britain, although pressed to the extreme, managed with scanty forces to save ourselves from far-reaching or lasting injury.

Despite its pivotal role in the defense of the Empire, the No.4 SFTS would be disbanded at Habbaniya in July, 1941. Later that same month, although the United States was hesitant to get involved in the war, she was not so hesitant to take notes and sent Marine Capt. James Roosevelt, son of the late President Theodore Roosevelt, on a fact finding mission to the airbase. While at Habbaniya, Capt. Roosevelt walked the terrain upon which the battle was fought and interviewed many of the British commanders personally. AVM Smart suffered a nervous breakdown on May 6th, after his staff car was forced into a ditch following an Iraqi bombing attack on camp. The political strains in the days building up to the siege certainly did him no favors and after his evacuation he was subsequently assigned to supporting staff positions for the rest of his career. Col. O.L. Roberts assumed overall command of the garrison until the arrival of AVM B.A. Casey on 18 May. (AVM B.A. Casey would later achieve the actual rank of Air Commodore, as the rank of Air Vice Marshall was only provisional during the campaign.) Squadron Leader A. G. "Tony" Dudgeon would later go on to have a colourful career in the RAF, eventually rising to the rank of Air Vice Marshall himself. He only recently passed away on January 5th, 2004.

It is a sad and unfortunate thing that this desert struggle, along with the warriors that had truly fought with their backs against the wall, has gone by largely unnoticed and ignored by most historians. Sad, because the gallant defenders of RAF Habbaniya don't get the recognition they so justly deserve; and unfortunate because the Battle of Habbaniya represents a crucial mistake—arguably the crucial mistake, which would eventually lead up to the fall and demise of Nazi Germany, almost four years later to the day. Oil would become the Achilles heel of the Panzer divisions: a weakness which was later exploited by the Allies and would help to propel them on to an almost certain victory. And as America's most trusted radio newsman says:

Now you know the rest of the story.