On April 28, 1941, when the British announced that more British soldiers would be landed in Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani rejected the request, as he earlier had demanded that the first batch of British troops must leave the country before more troops could land. The British government, however, again invoked the 1930 treaty and carried out the landing at Basra the following day, which was not resisted by the Iraqis.
(Taken from Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 5)
Background During World War I, British forces seized control of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq, Figure 33) from the Ottoman Empire. After the war, the British government tried to set up a protectorate over Mesopotamia using a League of Nations mandate (called the British Mandate for Mesopotamia), but faced strong opposition from the local people, who in 1920 launched protest actions that degenerated into riots that killed thousands of civilians and hundreds of British soldiers. As a result, the British acquiesced and held a referendum in Mesopotamia, where the overwhelming majority (96%) of the local population voted against the UN mandate and allowed the establishment of a ruling monarchy. Thus, in August 1921, the British government granted the semi-independence of Mesopotamia as the “Kingdom of Iraq” in the territories that consisted of the former Ottoman vilayets (provinces) of (Kurdish-dominated) Mosul, and (Islamic Sunni- and Shiite Arab-dominated) Baghdad, and Basrah, and ruled by King Faisal I, whom the British had brought in from Arabia and who was not native to Mesopotamia.
The British retained full control of Iraq, however, which they formalized in October 1922 by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty that allowed the Iraqi government to exercise control only over domestic affairs, while the British dictated Iraq’s foreign and military policies. In October 1932, Britain granted the Kingdom of Iraq nominal “full independence”, which was subject to another Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, signed in June 1930, that contained the following two major provisions: the British military was allowed to maintain two airbases in Iraq; and the British military was allowed unlimited, unrestricted access inside Iraq, including the use of roads, railways, waterways, ports, and airports in Iraq to carry out troop movements.
British interests in Iraq were centered on Iraq’s large petroleum industry, which was owned and operated by a British firm. In the late nineteenth century, Mesopotamia was thought to contain large oil deposits, attracting the interests of British and other European investors who courted favor with the Ottoman Empire, at that time the colonial ruler of Mesopotamia. The outbreak of World War I, however, scuttled these plans, and by the end of the war, only the British, having gained possession of Mesopotamia, resumed the search for oil. In 1927, oil in large commercial quantities was indeed discovered, and the British developed Iraq’s petroleum industry, soon leading to Britain’s commercial, political, and military domination of Iraq.
However, the British occupation was opposed by many Iraqis, particularly those belonging to the Arab nationalist movement, who wanted the foreigners to leave and viewed the British as not unlike the Ottomans before them who had subjugated the local population, and exploited Mesopotamia’s natural resources. The concept of Arab nationalism advocated political unification of all Arabs across the regions of northern Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia. In Iraq, the Arab nationalists grew in power and influence, occupying leading government and military positions; however, they were still unable to challenge British military authority.
In September 1939, World War II broke out in Europe. Britain was totally consumed in the conflict and in the early years, appeared headed for defeat to Germany and the Axis Powers. For the Iraqi nationalists, Britain’s preoccupation offered the perfect opportunity to take action. At the start of the war, the Iraqi government broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, but did not declare war. Since the 1930s, high-ranking Iraqi military officers belonging to the Iraqi Arab nationalist movement, called the “Circle of Seven”, were nurturing friendly relations with Nazi Germany, which was then rising in power. And by the outbreak of World War II, Iraq’s political climate was under extreme pressure and ready to break out into open warfare, with the ruling monarchy and other political elements remaining pro-British, and Arab nationalists, backed by the military, being pro-German (i.e. anti-British).
On April 1, 1941, former Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, supported by high-ranking Iraqi military officers, overthrew the government of Regent Prince Abdul Illah and Prime Minister Taha al-Hashimi. Prince Abdul Illah was regent of King Faisal II, who was a minor at six years old at that time. Gaylani took over power as Prime Minister and formed a government that was determined to limit or end British domination of the country. The new government retained the monarchy, however, but named a new regent for King Faisal II. Through secret talks with Axis representatives, particularly Fritz Grobba (the German Ambassador in Iraq), on April 10, 1941 Prime Minister Gaylani received guarantees of military assistance from Germany, as well as from Italy (which had entered the war on the Axis side in June 1940).
The Iraqi coup had taken Britain by surprise, as the British, since 1937, had withdrawn most of their forces from Iraq, leaving only a small military contingent (composed mostly of native troops) to guard two air force bases (at Habbaniya and Shaibah). The British did not openly recognize Gaylani’s government, but also did not end diplomatic relations with it. The British soon learned of Gaylani’s secret military arrangement with Germany, and thus rushed to send troops and weapons to Iraq, which were to be assembled from available units in Asia that were not yet engaged in the rapidly expanding world war. On April 12, 1941, the first units from British India departed aboard naval transports for southern Iraq.
On April 16, the British notified the Iraqi government that they were invoking the 1930 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and would be landing troops in Iraqi. Prime Minister Gaylani, who days earlier had said that he would respect the treaty, replied by saying that he did not object but that the British troops, once landed, must proceed immediately to their destination, which the British said was Palestine. The British, however, did not intend the troops to move beyond Iraq but be used to take down the Gaylani regime.
On April 18, 1941, the first British troops arrived, being landed in Shaibah air base. The next day, the first of the main British forces from India landed in Basra, located in southern Iraq. In the following weeks, the landed British Indian forces strengthened their presence in and around Basra.
However, the British air base in Habbaniya, located in central Iraq, was surrounded by and vulnerable to attack by hostile forces. The British there had some 2,000 mostly native troops, commanded by British officers, and about 80 planes, which suffered from varying levels of obsolescence and combat capability. Thus, in the following days, more troops and modern planes were sent to Habbaniya by air, while the existing planes there were retrofitted for greater combat strength. Britain also assembled two relief forces from Palestine (which it governed at that time through another League of Nations Mandate): first, a contingent from the Arab League (which was the regular armed forces of the Transjordan, a semi-independent emirate); and second, a combat unit called Habbaniya force (“Habforce”), which was to depart from Palestine. These two forces, however, would not participate in the coming defense of Habbaniya base, as war had broken out before their arrival.
On April 28, 1941, when the British announced that more British soldiers would be landed in Basra, Prime Minister Gaylani rejected the request, as he earlier had demanded that the first batch of British troops must leave the country before more troops could land. The British government, however, again invoked the 1930 treaty and carried out the landing at Basra the following day, which was not resisted by the Iraqis.