Brigadier Charles Edward Hudson VC,CB,DSO&BAR,MC
This page is presented by his grandson, Mr Mark Hudson
This brief excerpt is drawn from Hudson’s memoirs, some of which were published in Soldier, Poet, Rebel: The Extraordinary Life of Charles Hudson VC (The History Press Ltd, 2007).
From January 1944 to mid-1945 Brigadier Charles Edward Hudson was in the Middle East in command of the Iraq Levies – or Assyrian/Kurdish Levies - comprising about 5,000 Assyrians (Christian Nestorians or Chaldeans), Kurds from the mountains, Arabs from the desert, Baluchis from northern India (now Pakistan), and some Yezidis. (For more on Hudson, 1892-1959, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hudson_(VC), though the entry does not mention Hudson’s 18 months in Iraq.) These were used to guard far-flung RAF bases across virtually the whole of the Middle East (including parts of Persia, but excluding North Africa and Syria), staffed by about 170 British officers and NCOs as well as Assyrian officers and NCOs. As CEH laconically noted in his memoirs, 'the mixture did not always make for peaceful relationships.' In addition, the Iraqi army, which fought unsuccessfully during 1941 (allied to Germany) against the British, conducted what Hudson (no relation to Major Guy Hudson, who was also posted to the Levies) called ‘the annual war’ with ‘the local tribesmen’ in the mountainous north, principally against Kurds but also Assyrians and Yezidis.
The centre of British operations was Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad in Iraq. The posting suited Hudson, as he had considerable freedom to act as he saw fit, and he seems to have liked the wilder side of some of his (willing) tribal recruits – though he disliked the atmosphere in Cairo where he had to go, from time to time, to persuade his superiors to back his plans. There does not seem to have been any fighting involved in Iraq, as the German presence had by this time been vanquished.
From January 1944 to mid-1945 Brigadier Charles Edward Hudson was in the Middle East in command of the Iraq Levies – or Assyrian/Kurdish Levies - comprising about 5,000 Assyrians (Christian Nestorians or Chaldeans), Kurds from the mountains, Arabs from the desert, Baluchis from northern India (now Pakistan), and some Yezidis. (For more on Hudson, 1892-1959, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hudson_(VC), though the entry does not mention Hudson’s 18 months in Iraq.) These were used to guard far-flung RAF bases across virtually the whole of the Middle East (including parts of Persia, but excluding North Africa and Syria), staffed by about 170 British officers and NCOs as well as Assyrian officers and NCOs. As CEH laconically noted in his memoirs, 'the mixture did not always make for peaceful relationships.' In addition, the Iraqi army, which fought unsuccessfully during 1941 (allied to Germany) against the British, conducted what Hudson (no relation to Major Guy Hudson, who was also posted to the Levies) called ‘the annual war’ with ‘the local tribesmen’ in the mountainous north, principally against Kurds but also Assyrians and Yezidis.
The centre of British operations was Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad in Iraq. The posting suited Hudson, as he had considerable freedom to act as he saw fit, and he seems to have liked the wilder side of some of his (willing) tribal recruits – though he disliked the atmosphere in Cairo where he had to go, from time to time, to persuade his superiors to back his plans. There does not seem to have been any fighting involved in Iraq, as the German presence had by this time been vanquished.
CEH (third from left) in Iraq, 1944, with Assyrian soldiers.
With his usual energy and imagination, Hudson looked for ways to better the lot of the Levies, whom he saw were given little chance by the Arab Sunni establishment who ruled Iraq, which was theoretically independent, though under close British management after the short-lived Anglo-Iraqi war of 1941. The British military were clearly the main force in the land (as also in Palestine, Arabia and western Persia), though they were not meant to be involved in civil affairs.
Nevertheless, Hudson successfully started a local weaving business to supply cloth to the Assyrians, who were otherwise obliged to buy finished cloth from Mosul or Baghdad at prices which were double those of Hudson’s network of home-based looms. He also drew up extensive plans for irrigation schemes in western Iraq, which was technically well outside his remit, but the British authorities had no time or inclination for this (admittedly, there was a war on). ‘Why is it,’ Hudson lamented in his memoirs, ‘that the Communists so often seem the only modern regime who can plan and carry out really big social and economic schemes?’ Revolutionary thoughts…
Hudson set about getting to know his troops across the vast region. This included the occasional visit to village communities 'from which we drew our men.' He travelled with a single Assyrian interpreter. Being accompanied by the Assyrian meant also that Hudson was ‘assured of a welcome’ in either Assyrian or Kurdish villages, ‘but the villagers themselves were in a state of perpetual warfare.’ The one thing which everyone agreed on was that the lowland Arabs were to be despised and their police ignored, despite the Sunni Arab regime in Baghdad being theoretically the governing power in all of Iraq.
At one point during such a tour in a Kurdish area, Hudson ‘climbed up to one of these [police] posts, high above the road. The veranda was lined with a number of very tough-looking Kurds, all displaying their rifles and knives. The slovenly-looking police were chatting with them… there was great excitement in the district, as the Iraqi government had offered a large reward for the capture of a local Kurd who had committed a murder… I asked [my Assyrian Levy officer] who the murderer was? To my astonishment he calmly said he was the tall Kurd who did a good deal of the talking on the veranda. Did the police know, I asked, and was told they undoubtedly knew, but, as I had seen, he and his friends were well armed. They were probably discussing how the reward could be obtained. The notice had said “dead or alive”. All that was required was a dead body, and witnesses. I wondered if the murderer would be one of the witnesses. He had seemed [to be] a very forceful and attractive character!’
Hudson returned to the UK soon after VE Day in May 1945.
Nevertheless, Hudson successfully started a local weaving business to supply cloth to the Assyrians, who were otherwise obliged to buy finished cloth from Mosul or Baghdad at prices which were double those of Hudson’s network of home-based looms. He also drew up extensive plans for irrigation schemes in western Iraq, which was technically well outside his remit, but the British authorities had no time or inclination for this (admittedly, there was a war on). ‘Why is it,’ Hudson lamented in his memoirs, ‘that the Communists so often seem the only modern regime who can plan and carry out really big social and economic schemes?’ Revolutionary thoughts…
Hudson set about getting to know his troops across the vast region. This included the occasional visit to village communities 'from which we drew our men.' He travelled with a single Assyrian interpreter. Being accompanied by the Assyrian meant also that Hudson was ‘assured of a welcome’ in either Assyrian or Kurdish villages, ‘but the villagers themselves were in a state of perpetual warfare.’ The one thing which everyone agreed on was that the lowland Arabs were to be despised and their police ignored, despite the Sunni Arab regime in Baghdad being theoretically the governing power in all of Iraq.
At one point during such a tour in a Kurdish area, Hudson ‘climbed up to one of these [police] posts, high above the road. The veranda was lined with a number of very tough-looking Kurds, all displaying their rifles and knives. The slovenly-looking police were chatting with them… there was great excitement in the district, as the Iraqi government had offered a large reward for the capture of a local Kurd who had committed a murder… I asked [my Assyrian Levy officer] who the murderer was? To my astonishment he calmly said he was the tall Kurd who did a good deal of the talking on the veranda. Did the police know, I asked, and was told they undoubtedly knew, but, as I had seen, he and his friends were well armed. They were probably discussing how the reward could be obtained. The notice had said “dead or alive”. All that was required was a dead body, and witnesses. I wondered if the murderer would be one of the witnesses. He had seemed [to be] a very forceful and attractive character!’
Hudson returned to the UK soon after VE Day in May 1945.
Brigadier Charles Hudson (3rd from right) in Iraq in 1945 when commanding the Iraqi/Assyrian Levies. The third man from the left is General Robinson, Commandant-General of the Royal Air Force Regiment (under whose auspices the Levies operated). fourth from left, Major Guy Hudson [no relation].
