アングロ＝イラク戦争
During the morning of 11 May, Kingcol departed from Haifa with orders to reach Habbaniya as quickly as possible. The occasion was the last all-horse operation in British military history. On 13 May, Kingcol arrived in Rutbah but found no military presence there. Glubb Pasha and the Arab Legion had already moved on. The flying column under Brigadier Kingstone then conducted maintenance at Rutbah before moving on themselves. On 15 May, the first contact was made with the Iraqi military when a Blenheim bomber strafed the column and dropped a bomb; no damage was inflicted and no casualties were sustained.
イギリスのラシッド・アリの「国家防衛政府」との関係はますます悪化していった。1931年の条約ではイラクはイギリスが戦争に巻き込まれた時にはイギリスに援助を提供する義務があるとされていたが、これにはイギリス軍がイラク国内を通過することも条件に含まれていた。イギリス軍の任務はイラク王立軍にも課され、ハバニヤとシャイバの持ち場があった 。イギリス首相ウィンストン・チャーチルはイラクの国家防衛政府を初めから認めておらず、法に逆らっているとした。
4月2日、新しいイギリスの大使 Sir Kinahan Cornwallisがイラクのバグダードに到着した。彼はメソポタミアでの経験があり、ファイサル1世の顧問として20年過ごした。Cornwallisは高く評価され、イラクの新政府に対して、それまでよりも強硬な路線をとることができるだろうと理解され、イラクに派遣されたのである。しかし、残念ながらCornwallisがイラクに到着するのが遅すぎたため、戦争の勃発を防ぐことはできなかった。
On 6 April, AVM Smart requested reinforcements, but his request was rejected by the air officer commanding in the Middle East, Sir Arthur Longmore.
British fighters entered French air space and strafed and disabled the damaged Heinkels. On 15 May an attack was made on German aircraft on the ground at Damascus, killing a French officer in the process.
By 18 May, Junck's force had been whittled down to 8 Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters, 4 Heinkel He 111 bombers, and 2 Junkers Ju 52 transports. This represented roughly a 30 percent loss of his original force. With few replacements available, no spares, poor fuel, and aggressive attacks by the British, this rate of attrition did not bode well for Fliegerführer Irak.
Vichy France, which controlled neighbouring Syria, became keen to facilitate any agreement between Iraq, Italy and Germany. Key Vichy figure Admiral Darlan was fully supportive of agreements with the Germans in order to promote long-term French aims, and had become increasingly incensed by British naval attacks on Vichy shipping, which sometimes brought the Royal Navy into direct confrontation with Vichy military forces. It was therefore proposed that Axis access to Iraq would be facilitated via French-held Syria.
The forces being transported consisted of two senior staff officers from the 10th Indian Division headquarters, the 20th Indian Infantry Brigade, the personnel of the Royal Artillery's 3rd Field Regiment; but without their guns, and certain ancillary troops.
On 13 April, the Royal Navy force of four ships in the Persian Gulf were reinforced by the aircraft carrier Hermes(en) and two light cruisers, Emerald(en) and Template:HMNZS. HMS Hermes carried the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers of 814 Squadron. The naval vessels which covered the disembarkation at Basra consisted of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, the light cruiser HMS Emerald, the light cruiser HMNZS Leander, the sloop Falmouth(en), the gunboat HMS Cockchafer, the sloop HMS Seabelle, the minesweeper sloop Template:Ship, and the sloop HMAS Yarra.
At 03:00 hours on 30 April, RAF Habbaniya was warned by the British Embassy that Iraqi forces had left their bases, at Baghdad, and were heading west. The Iraqi force was composed of between 6,000.–9,000. troops with up to 30 artillery pieces. Within a few hours of RAF Habbaniya being warned, Iraqi forces occupied the plateau to the south of the base. Prior to dawn, reconnaissance aircraft were launched from RAF Habbaniya and reported that at least two battalions, with artillery, had taken up position on the plateau.
Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, the British Ambassador to Iraq, referred the issue to London and London replied that they had no interest in moving the troops out of the country and wanted to establish them within Iraq. Cornwallis was also instructed not to inform Rashid Ali who, as he had taken control of the country via a coup d'état, had no right to be informed about British troop movements.
On 20 April, Churchill had written to Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, and indicated that it should be made clear to Ambassador Cornwallis that the chief interest in sending troops to Iraq was the covering and establishment of a great assembly base near Basra.
British reconnaissance aircraft, already in the air, continued to relay information to the base; they reported that the Iraqi positions on the plateau were being steadily reinforced, they also reported that Iraqi troops had occupied the town of Fallujah.
At 11:30 hours, the Iraqi envoy again made contact with Air Vice-Marshal Smart and accused the British of violating the Anglo-Iraqi treaty. Air Vice-Marshal Smart replied that this was a political matter and he would have to refer the accusation to Ambassador Cornwallis. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces had now occupied vital bridges over the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as well as reinforcing their garrison at Ramadi; thus effectively cutting off RAF Habbaniya except from the air.
1kg)爆弾を運ぶことができ、twelve were modified to carry two 250 lb (110 kg) bombs. ゴードンは2個の250ポンド爆弾を運ぶことができ、オックスフォードは発煙弾から8個の20ポンド爆弾搭載に変更された。ホーカー・ハートは2つの250ポンド爆弾を運ぶことができた。ホーカー訓練機は非武装で、5月3日にブレナムを出発した。There was also an RAF Iraq Communications Flight at Habbaniya with three Vickers Valentia biplane flying boats. At RAF Shaibah there was 244 Squadron with some Vickers Vincent bombers. The naval forces available to support British actions in Iraq were part of the East Indies Station and included vessels from the Royal Navy (RN), the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and the Royal Indian Navy (RIN).
During this period of time, Glubb Pasha's Legionnaires dominated the tribal country north of Fallujah between the Euphrates and the Tigris, an area known as Jezireh. Lieutenant-General Glubb had been instructed to persuade the local tribes to stop supporting Rashid Ali's government. Using a combination of propaganda and raids against Iraqi government posts, his actions proved to be remarkably successful. The British also used this period of time to increase air activity against the northern airfields of the Luftwaffe and to finally crush the German effort to support the Iraqis.
Before Smart launched his airstrikes on 2 May, members of the Iraqi Desert Police had seized the fort at Rutbah for the "National Defence Government." On 1 May, the police opened fire on British workers in Rutbah. In response to these Iraqi actions, Major-General Clark had ordered the mechanised squadron of the Transjordan Frontier Force (TJFF), which was based at H4 pumping station, to seize the fort for the British. When the members of the TJFF refused, they were marched back to H3 and disarmed.
By the end of the first day of airstrikes, there had been reports that elements of the Royal Iraqi Army (RIrA) were advancing on the town of Rutbah.