Special staff F
The Sonderstab F was a German military mission in Iraq during World War II under the command of General der Flieger Hellmuth Felmy . The legal basis was the Führer directive number 30 “Middle Orient” of May 23, 1941. It meant weapon aid and propaganda support from the German Reich for Iraq. The aim was to strengthen the resistance of the Iraqi armed forces and to increase their self-confidence in relation to the British troops stationed on their territory . The Iraqi "popular uprising" hoped for by Hitler failed due to the military countermeasures of the British, the amateurish plan and the weak presence of the Air Force in this area. The deployment of the special staff ended on May 29, 1941, one day before the Iraqi-British / Indian armistice on May 30, 1941.
Directive number 30 "Middle East"
At a point in time when the German air force operation was only a shadow of itself, Hitler officially issued German support for Iraq with Führer directive number 30 “Middle Orient” of May 23, 1941. This instruction read:
"1. The Arab freedom movement is our natural ally against England in the Middle East. In this context, the Iraq uprising is of particular importance. It strengthens the forces hostile to England in the Middle East beyond the Iraqi borders, disrupts English connections and binds English troops and English shipping space at the expense of other theaters of war. I have therefore decided to drive development in the Middle East forward with the support of Iraq. Whether and how the English position between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf - in connection with an offensive against the Suez Canal - is to be finally brought down later on, will not be decided until after Barbarossa.
2. In summary of my individual decisions, I order
- the support of Iraq
- sending a military mission
- Assistance from the Air Force
- Weapons shipments.
3. The military mission (code name: Sonderstab F) is subordinate to the General der Flieger Felmy. Your duties are
- a) to advise and support the Iraqi armed forces,
- b) if possible to establish military connections with forces hostile to England also outside of Iraq,
- c) to gain experience and documents in this area for the German armed forces.
The composition according to these tasks is regulated by the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. The following applies to the subordinate relationships: a) All members of the Wehrmacht to be dispatched to Iraq, as well as the Syria Liaison Command, report to the head of the military mission. b) The Chief of the Military Mission reports to the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht with the stipulation that orders and guidelines for the airborne units are issued exclusively by the Commander in Chief of the Air Force. c) The head of the military mission only deals with the military services of Iraq. The representative of the Foreign Office in Iraq conducts negotiations with the Iraqi government on mission matters. In the case of military orders that can have repercussions on foreign policy, the head of the military mission must first establish an agreement with the representative of the Foreign Office in Iraq. d) The members of the military mission are initially considered volunteers (like the Condor Legion ). They wear tropical uniforms with Iraqi badges. The latter can also be carried by German aircraft.
4. Air Force: Its use, which is to be limited in number, serves the purpose of strengthening the self-confidence and resistance of the Iraqi armed forces and the people in addition to the pure weapons effect. The Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force determines the nature and extent of the German intervention.
5. Arms deliveries: The necessary orders (deliveries from Syria based on the agreement made with the French for this purpose and from Germany) are made by the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht.
6. Control of the propaganda in the Middle East is the task of the Foreign Office, which works with the High Command of the Wehrmacht (WFSt / WPr). The basic idea of the propaganda is: »The victory of the axis brings the countries of the Middle East liberation from the English yoke and thus the right to self-determination. Anyone who loves freedom should therefore join the front against England. «Propaganda against the French position in Syria must be avoided.
7. If Italian members of the armed forces are deployed in Iraq, they must be worked with them on the basis of the above instructions. Their subordination to the head of the German military mission will be sought. "
prehistory
In 1627 Iraq fell to the Ottoman Empire and became a Turkish province. During the First World War , this province was defended against the British-Indian armed forces from 1915 to 1917 by Turkish troops, with German support . After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, Iraq established its own interest group on its territory. In March 1921, Iraq fell under the leadership of Faisal I to Great Britain as a mandate area . Although Faisal had initially taken a pro-German stance, he moved closer to British interests in 1918. In 1924 the incorporation of the Mosul area followed under him. In 1930 Iraq joined the League of Nations as an independent state.
Another treaty between Iraq and England from 1930 regulated the right of British troops to march through and to transport material around the important oil wells near Mosul . The British Empire also had two military airfields, Habbaniya (near Baghdad ) and one near Basra . After Faisal I's death in 1933, King Ghazi I became head of state. He died in a car accident in 1939. His successor was the Emir Abd ul-Ilah . When Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 , Iraq broke off diplomatic relations ; but held back from a declaration of war . After the defeat of France in the summer of 1940, an anti-British stance emerged in the Iraqi military leadership. This culminated in a palace revolt on April 3, 1941, as a result of which the anti-British Raschid Ali al-Gailani and his general troops and other high-ranking officers were able to seize power. Among his followers was the Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , who was considered the head of the Palestinian Arabs against British supremacy in the Arab world and a staunch nationalist . Abd-ul-llah, the designated head of state, was only able to flee.
British reactions
The British reactions to the change of power were not long in coming. On April 17, 1941, British paratroopers occupied the strategically important Basra without resistance to secure their sphere of influence. The paratroopers were reinforced on April 18, 1941 by British and Indian units landing in the port there. Gailani, in turn, had 9000 men of his armed forces and artillery deployed against the British airport of Habbaniya and encircled. There was no open attack. At that time there were 2,200 British soldiers, 9,000 civilians and 82 aircraft of all types spread over 4 squadrons. The total Iraqi armed forces comprised about 37,000 soldiers. Gailani also had a few river gunboats and 57 aircraft, 12 of which were Gloster Gladiator , 12 Fiat G.50 and 12 Douglas Dauntless . On May 2, 1941, Iraqi forces occupied Fort Rutba on the Syrian border, which was of great strategic importance due to the important Mosul - Haifa pipeline to supply the British Mediterranean fleet. In order to be able to counter other British offensives equally, Gailani officially asked the Greater German Reich on May 2, 1941 for arms aid. One day later, on May 3, 1941, RAF units bombed the Iraqi airfield Hinaidi, with 20 Iraqi machines on the ground, which corresponded to about 35% of the air force, were destroyed. At the same time, the British Air Force attacked the Iraqi troops stationed around Habbaniya and destroyed their artillery.
German backlash
The requested weapon aid from Iraq triggered a series of reactions in the Berlin Foreign Office in consultation with Hitler . On May 6, 1941, a military mission called Sonderstab F under the command of General der Flieger Hellmuth Felmy was decided in the area of the air force , who should take over the tactical command of the future air force operations in Iraq from Greece . The Junck Sonderkommando, under the leadership of Colonel Werner Junck , was directly subordinate to him and was to take over operational management from Mosul (later Baghdad). For this purpose, the 4th squadron of the destroyer squadron 76 with 12 machines of the type Me 110 and the 4th squadron of the combat squadron 4 consisting of 12 machines of the Heinkel He 111 type were used. In order to ensure safe transport of the necessary arms deliveries, Fritz Grobba , at the time the German envoy in Damascus , previously Baghdad, received the order to contact the French General Resident of the Levant, d. H. of the Mediterranean countries, General Henri Dentz . This then obtained the approval of the Vichy government , which approved the overflight and the free transport of weapons and equipment via Syria to Iraq. It also included the use of Syrian airports as transit bases for German aircraft. At the same time Gailani called for a holy war for the independence of Iraq. Grobba and his staff arrived in Baghdad on May 11, 1941 after the negotiations in Syria.
On May 12, 1941, a German advance command from the Junck Special Command flew from Athens to Baghdad. The son of General Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg , Major Axel von Blomberg, was on board the individual He 111s . However, his aircraft was mistakenly shot at by Galaini's troops on approach. The plane landed safely, but any help came too late for von Blomberg. He had already died from a shot in the head. On the same day, another six German He 111 bombers landed at their stopover in Damascus on the way to Mosul. The other air forces en route made a stopover in Palmyra , Syria, on their way to Iraq , where they were caught by a British bombing raid. None of the machines was seriously damaged, but the British had learned of the possible use of German aircraft in Iraq. The main part of both squadrons later reached the air base near Mosul, with an He 111 crash landing as a result of the sandstorm that was raging there . With that, 23 machines of the Sonderkommando were still operational. The air forces were later transferred to Baghdad.
The following day, May 13, 1941, the first arms transport from Syria arrived in Iraq via the Baghdad Railway . It contained 12 artillery pieces, 200 machine guns, more than 300 submachine guns, 13,000 artillery rounds, 5 million rounds of rifle and pistol ammunition, 32 motor vehicles and the equipment for an intelligence force from French weapons stocks. When the British command learned that the Vichy government had given the German air force permission to use its airfields in Syria, RAF units bombed the airfields in Damascus , Palmyra and Rayak .
Meanwhile, the situation of the few German air force units in Iraq developed catastrophically. There was a lack of spare parts, suitable special sand filters for the aircraft; as well as reinforced cooling systems and special tires for the soft desert sand. Furthermore, the two squadrons had only a small amount of ground personnel available. Far worse, however, was the lack of ammunition and bombs, as well as high-octane fuel , which under adventurous circumstances had to be artificially enriched to 100 octane. Furthermore, there was no air reconnaissance of its own and the available maps were insufficient. The parachutes to be used by the pilots in an emergency suffered from the high temperatures in such a way that the parachute silk became brittle. Hoping for supplies, which however never arrived due to the parallel airborne battle over Crete , of the 24 German pilots deployed, only Martin Drewes on his Bf 110 was able to achieve the first and only aerial victory at Fallujah on May 20, 1941 when he shot down a Gloster Gladiator . He was later shot down by a British truck's flak and had to make an emergency landing in the desert. However, an Iraqi search party saved him and his rifleman from death. The rest of the machines, until the end of May 1941, performed more poorly than their daily attacks. More than a disruption of the British supply lines and the destruction of a handful of RAF aircraft on the ground, however, they were unable to achieve. By the end of the month, their own machines were gradually failing due to the above-mentioned inadequacies.
On the night of May 27-28, 1941, the British advance on Baghdad began, the first suburbs of which were captured on May 30, 1941. At that time, Junck still had two He 111s ready for action. The Iraqi ministers, including Defense Minister Naji Shawakat, fled to Ankara . Rashid Ali fled to Persia and Berlin after the German side announced that no further aid could be provided for the next two months. The “Junck Sonderkommando” was relocated from Baghdad to Mosul on the night of May 29th to 30th, 1941, abandoning the last aircraft, where they were ordered back to Germany via Rhodes via Italian transport planes . There the special staff was disbanded. They were replaced in Iraq by the twelve Fiat CR.42 machines of the Italian Air Force, which arrived in Baghdad on May 29, 1941 , but they achieved nothing with their old machines. The ruler of Iraq, who was previously in exile and now Abd al-llah, signed an armistice with the British / Indian forces on May 31, 1941 and was entrusted with the formation of a new government. On June 1, 1941, Baghdad was occupied by British and Indian troops, followed by Mosul on June 4, 1941. With the establishment of the new government, Iraq was pacified and the "Iraq adventure" for the German Air Force was over, as both the impending attack on the Soviet Union and the campaign in Africa tied up the available resources.
More British offensives
The British now turned to Syria and Lebanon , which remained under the control of the French Vichy government. These imponderables, behind the British front in Egypt , were seen as a serious threat. So on July 8, 1941, Australian, British and Indian troops under the command of General Georges Catroux and the 1st Division of the Free French marched into the two countries as part of the Syrian-Lebanese campaign and occupied them.
Subsequently, the Iranian oil fields of Iran came into the sights of the British military. Since Germany enjoyed a great reputation in Iran, the British feared that Germany could make use of the oil fields there by means of state agreements in order to decisively improve their war situation in the Mediterranean region. In order to counter this danger and also to be able to deliver urgently needed supplies to the Soviet Union, Great Britain demanded that Iran expel the German colonies as well as neutrality for the transit of war supplies to the Soviet Union. Since the Iranian government initially refused to comply with the demands, the Iraqi armed forces received an order from the British to occupy the oil refineries and oil fields of Abadan if necessary . After a note written by the Soviet Union and Great Britain also went unheard, August 25, 1941 was set as the date of attack by British-Soviet troops. Three days after the start of the fighting, Iran surrendered on August 28, 1941. On September 17, 1941, British and Soviet troops occupied Tehran without a fight. British casualties at that time amounted to 22 dead and 42 wounded.
See also
literature
- Ernst Obermaier: The Luftwaffe Knight's Cross Carriers 1939–1945 , Vol. I Jagdflieger, Dieter Hoffmann Verlag 1966, p. 83.
- Martin Drewes , Kurt Braatz : Sand and fire - fighter pilots in Iraq and over Germany. Twenty-nine and six 2011, ISBN 978-3-9811615-6-4 .
- Walther Hubatsch : Hitler's instructions for waging war 1939–1945. Nebel Verlag 1999, ISBN 978-3-89555-173-4 .
- Winston S. Churchill : The Second World War - Memoir. Ullstein Taschenbuchverlag 1987, Volume III, ISBN 978-3-548-33060-0 .
- Wilhelm Kohlhaas : Hitler's adventure in Iraq. An experience report. Herder Taschenbuch 1989, ISBN 978-3-451-08605-2 .