Military coup in Iraq 1941
The military coup in Iraq in April 1941 was an attempt by Arab nationalist officers of the " Golden Square " and politicians around Rashid Ali al-Gailani to overthrow the Iraqi government and the underage King Faisal II and to end the influence of Great Britain . After the putschists came to power, fighting broke out with British troops at the end of April. In the course of May they succeeded in defeating the Iraqi army and ending the coup .
prehistory
After the end of the First World War, the Kingdom of Iraq was awarded to Great Britain as a mandate of the League of Nations , which was soon shaken by unrest . Since then, the relationship between the two states has been determined by the Anglo-Iraqi treaties . The British occupation and suzerainty between 1917 and 1932 and the appointment of the Arab King Faisal I meant that the Iraqi national forces rejected the king and the government's pro-British policy. Between 1936 and 1941 there were already several coup attempts by the military. In this the resistance against the system formed in the so-called "Golden Square". In the political arena, the anti-British forces were led by former Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gailani. Due to his political views, he had to resign from his office several times. In order to get support for their anti-British request, the putschists worked with the German embassy. Iraq broke off relations with Germany after the outbreak of war in 1939, but not with Italy, with whom Great Britain had also been at war since 1940. The British therefore put considerable pressure on the Iraqi government to break ties.
The question of Palestine was also of particular importance for the situation in Iraq. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , who had been in the country since the suppression of the Arab uprising in 1939, exerted an important influence on the nationalists. He also acted as a contact for German diplomats and reported personally to Hitler in the form of letters.
Coup
Overthrow the government
On April 1, 1941, Prince Abd ul-Ilah , who ruled for King Faisal II, who was still a minor, was charged with disregarding the constitution and harming national unity. The coup plotters proclaimed a government of national defense and Al-Gailani requested the removal of the now-fled regent and his replacement by Sharif Sharaf . In order to intimidate the opponents in parliament, the vote was made by name. After Sharif Sharaf was elected as the new regent, this appointed al-Gailani as the new Prime Minister and entrusted him with the formation of a government.
British reactions
The British side was unsettled from the start about the changed situation in strategically important Iraq. In order to test the new government's position and loyalty to the alliance, they wanted to obtain permission to land troops in Basra that were supposed to be transferred to Palestine . According to the treaties concluded between Great Britain and the Kingdom of Iraq, this would have been possible without any problems. Al-Gailani could not simply oppose this demand. However, under pressure from the officers of the Golden Square, he set conditions for the British landing, such as the immediate march of the troops to Palestine. The real goal of the British, however, was to achieve a permanent military presence around Basra, for which more troops have already been provided. The landing of the first troops in Basra went smoothly on April 18 and the air force base in Habbaniyya was alerted. The Iraqi government protested against these measures and also mobilized its troops.
Start of fighting
On April 28, Iraqi troops occupied the heights around the British Habbaniyya Air Force Base. The commander of the Iraqi units asked the British to suspend their flights, otherwise he would shell the airfield. They then called on the Iraqis to withdraw. When this did not take place, British commander Harry George Smart, in consultation with Ambassador Kinahan Cornwallis , launched attacks on Iraqi troops and Iraqi airfields near Baghdad on May 2. The surprised besiegers had to accept great losses of material within a short time. At the same time, the British troops in Transjordan were alerted and prepared for an invasion of Iraq.
Aid from the Axis powers
In order to help the anti-British forces in Iraq, the German government decided, at the instigation of diplomat Fritz Grobba, to provide arms and military support; the latter could only be done by combat aircraft due to the distance and the short period of time. The Luftwaffe set up the special staff F for this purpose. After consultation with the government of Vichy-France , about 20 German and 12 Italian fighter planes were relocated over Syria to Iraq on May 6th . At the same time, a large amount of weapons and material was transported overland from Syrian depots. Due to the preparations for Operation Barbarossa , however, the German government was not interested in getting caught up in a major exchange with the British without being prepared.
Course of the fighting
Despite the numerical superiority of the Iraqi troops, the British units managed to overrun their defensive positions quickly and to advance within May with the help of reinforcements from Transjordan via Fallujah to Baghdad . With its limited resources, the Axis powers' arms aid could not do anything against British air sovereignty. Most of the machines failed within a very short time due to a shortage of supplies and technical problems. The attack on Baghdad began on May 27 and ended with the city's surrender on May 31.
After the end of the coup
Escape of the putschists
With the beginning of the attack on Baghdad and its rapid progress, the regime of the putschists collapsed. Several of them fled to Iran, including the former Prime Minister al-Gailani. Other coup plotters, among them the officers of the Golden Square, were caught and sentenced to death . The body of the most publicly known leader of the Golden Square, Salah al-Din as-Sabagh, was publicly displayed at the entrance of the Ministry of Defense after his execution .
Farhud
After the capture of Baghdad, anti-Jewish pogroms broke out in the poorly secured outskirts on June 1 and 2, in the course of which more than a hundred people died and a much larger number were injured. As a result of the violence, most Iraqi Jews emigrated in the following years, ushering in the end of the Jewish community in the country.
Continue
The barely veiled Vichy-French support of the Axis powers in the Iraqi crisis contributed to the decision of the British to occupy the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon . The month-long Syrian-Lebanese campaign , which also included troops previously deployed in Iraq, began on June 8th.
After the German attack on the Soviet Union , Iraq served as the British base for the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran (August / September 1941).
literature
- Adeed Dawisha: Iraq: A Political History from Independence to Occupation. Princeton 2011, ISBN 978-1-4008-2999-6 .
- Hala Mundhir Fattah, Frank Caso: A Brief History of Iraq Facts On File, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-8160-5767-2 .
- Henner Fürtig: A short history of Iraq. From the foundation in 1921 to the present. 2nd updated edition. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49464-1 .
- Courtney Hunt: The History of Iraq Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 2005, ISBN 0-313-33414-5 .
- Charles Tripp: A History of Iraq . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-55404-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Adeed Dawisha: Iraq: A Political History from Independence to Occupation. 2011, p. 98f.
- ^ Charles Tripp: A History of Iraq . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-55404-7 , p. 101.
- ^ Henner Fürtig : Brief history of Iraq. From the foundation in 1921 to the present. 2nd updated edition. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49464-1 , p. 37.
- ^ Charles Tripp: A History of Iraq . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-55404-7 , p. 102.
- ^ Henner Fürtig: Brief history of Iraq. From the foundation in 1921 to the present. 2nd updated edition. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49464-1 , p. 38.
- ^ Courtney Hunt: The History of Iraq. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 2005, ISBN 0-313-33414-5 , p. 71.
- ↑ Adeed Dawisha: Iraq: A Political History from Independence to Occupation. 2011, p. 99f.
- ^ Courtney Hunt: The History of Iraq. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 2005, ISBN 0-313-33414-5 , p. 103.
