Word: bagdade
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...degree heat, which made the metal of motorized units untouchable, the British broke the Iraqi siege of Habbania and drove them right to Feluja on the Euphrates River. There the Iraqi picked positions across the river from the British and dominating the only good bridge leading to Bagdad, 40 miles farther along...
...British applied the or else. It consisted of a severe bombing assault, a hail of artillery, and three ground attacks-one straight across the bridge, one which crossed the river farther up, and an airborne assault which landed in the desert behind the Iraqi, cutting off their retreat to Bagdad. By week's end, with the help of Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks (fighters) and Martin 1675 (bombers), the British had the situation well enough in hand so that pro-Axis Premier Rashid Ali El-Gailani and his Defense Minister were reported to have requested visas to flee to Turkey...
...Back Doors. The British would doubtless make every effort to dislodge the Germans from the oil fields. But it appeared last week that the Germans might be able to supply their forces in Iraq through Turkey. It was reported in Vichy that the first German force straddled the Bagdad-Istanbul railway and refused to get off it unless the Turks allowed German equipment to ride its rails across Turkey...
Grobba showed up in Bagdad. He persuaded the then King, Ghazi I, to send some young officers to military war games in Germany. They returned to Iraq amazed. In 1938 he had 50 German officers invited to Iraqui war games. They stayed in Iraq. Next he arranged to have some "research expeditions" sent from Germany to Iraq. They stayed in Iraq. In October 1938, some Arabs attacked and fired the main British pipelines from the Iraq fields; when this was found to be a Grobba job, he had to flee to Saudi Arabia...
...British disagreed, charged that El-Gailani himself had violated the treaty by not granting full use of communications and airfields. The British were confined to two fields where they had been established under the treaty for years: Habbania, on the west bank of the Euphrates, 65 miles from Bagdad, a huge airdrome with cantonments for about 5,000 men, but equipped only with small guns and some 50 antique biplanes; and Shaibah, near Basra, basing a bomber squadron and an armored-car section...