Group Captain J O'SULLIVAN OBE
2nd Assyrian Platoon 1st Parachute company.
Mr. O'Sullivan was born in Cork, Ireland. He served in the RAF from 1939-1945 and as a career officer until he retired in 1966. He came to Australia in the same year with his wife. He is an Author of three Publications, "Echoes of Ireland, Queen Adelaide’s Wine and hunting of the Stark" a collection of poems. He was also the chairman of the Australian-Irish Heritage Association and spoke Assyrian. He passed away on the 19th October 2004 in Perth Australia.
THE RAF LEVIES
by
Joe O'Sullivan
The Levies were a product of the political upheaval at the end of the Great War that led to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The Wilson Doctrine's Fourteen Points had promised that all subject races of that Empire should be granted self determination at the end of the war. Seizing this, the Kurds declared the independent Republic of Kurdistan and in 1920 the Treaty of Sevres granted them the Villayet, or province, of Mosul and part of Eastern Anatolia. Their jubilation was not to last long because of the conflict between the British and the French over spheres of influence. In 1918 the British had installed Prince Faisal of the Hejaz as King of Syria but the French dethroned him, claiming that Syria had been in France's sphere of influence from the time of the Crusades.
Instead the British, now with a mandate from the League of Nations to guide Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan into full nationhood, offered Faisal the throne of Iraq, a new nation comprising the Villayets, of Basra and Baghdad. Faisal demanded that the Villayet of Mosul be included in the new kingdom. Although Mosul was the Capital newly established Republic of Kurdistan, it was oil-rich, the reason for Faisal's demand. To complicate the issue, Kemal Ataturk, the new ruler of Turkey flatly refused to cede any more territory. These machinations led to the independent Republic of Kurdistan being, in effect, cancelled, a rare occurrence in diplomatic history. The instability that resulted was to cause problems that endanger the peace of the world even to the present day.
For economic reasons and to avoid friction with the new rulers which a garrison of soldiers could cause, the British decided to implement its mandate by the strategy of Air control. The RAF was to be responsible for the security of the three mandated countries with eight squadrons of aircraft, with locally recruited ground troops. The Assyrians, a Christian minority some of whom fled Turkey for the relative safety of Iran and Iraq during the war were now in refugee camps.
The British could turn its humanitarian principles to practical use by recruiting these refugees to guard its air bases and to undertake whatever ground operations were needed. British Army officers with comparable officers from the indigenous ranks commanded all units.
The force commander was RAB Khaila-Leader of 1000.
Battalion commander was RAB Tremma-Leader of 200.
Company commander was RAB Emma- Leader of 100.
Platoon commander was RAB Khamshi- Leader of 50.
In 1920 when the RAF took over, the Iraq Levies, as they were then known, consisted of three cavalry regiments, four infantry battalions, two artillery batteries and a machine-gun company, a total of six thousand Assyrians, Arabs and Kurds. Its tasks were to support RAF operations against Kurds who, not surprisingly, had rebelled when their republic was "cancelled". They continued in revolt throughout the British mandate, and afterwards against the Iraqi government. The RAF reduced this force by more than half, modernized it and established a number of armored car companies. In World War Two these achieved legendary status not only in Iraq but also throughout the Middle East. Their experience in desert operations made them a valuable resource in the Western Desert campaigns.
End of Mandate.
The League of Nations' mandate over Iraq ended in 1932 with the government established as a constitutional monarchy and all the machinery of government in place.
The British government was anxious to maintain its military privileges because of the air roots to India, the far East and Australia. Accordingly, the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1932 that followed the mandate took account of the policy of air control that has been in force since 1922. Under the terms of this Treaty, the RAF was allowed to maintain two major bases, one at Shaibah, south of Basra in the Persian Gulf and the other at Habbaniya, inland and west of Baghdad. The Treaty limited ground forces to two Levies battalions and one Armored Car Company.
Habbaniya, Sinn El Dibban [the place of flies]is some sixty kilometers from Baghdad on a bend of the great river Euphrates that rises in Kurdistan and with the Tigris gave Iraq its ancient geographical name, Mesopotamia. Between these two rivers is the great fertile area that was the granary for the Roman, Persian and other empires of antiquity. The rivers come together and form the Shat el Arab before flowing into the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates is a meandering river and makes periodic attempts to reclaim its old bed, on which the RAF station was built. It helped make the RAF station an oasis in the desert; its Rose gardens were famous, the roads were lined with eucalyptus trees imported from Australia; the houses and messes were fronted with emerald-green Lawns; tennis courts and sports grounds were plentiful. The temperature could be blisteringly hot in summer, reaching 40 deg Centigrade, and bitterly cold in the short winter. The accepted style of living in summer was to keep cool in the house during the day and to dine and sleep in the open air. In hindsight, it must be said that the base was geared for every eventuality except war.
World War Two.
Wartime expansion increased the Levies to a force of some 12000, deployed in Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria. An ethnically mixed force, it contained Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis. The soldiers of these units were deployed in a variety of duties protecting the RAF throughout the Middle East. Most of the bases were far from home, homesickness was rife, and it must be remembered that this was not their war and they were not imbued with the patriotic fervor that bolstered the British, for example, in tolerating war conditions.
Battle of Habbaniya.
Although Iraq was at war with Germany, many of the younger Army officers disagreed and in 1941 seized power. They were commanded by a group of four Colonels; "The Golden Square" who asked the Axis powers for help. Then the British Government deployed three Indian Army Brigades to the Persian Gulf and in response, the Iraqis invested Habbaniya. Some Eight thousand men with artillery and amour occupied the plateau overlooking the airfield and cut its communications with Baghdad and Jordan. The Habbaniya garrison of one armored car company and six companies of Levies were reinforced by one British army Battalion flown in from Shaibah.
On 30th April, the Iraqis demanded a complete cessation of all military activity at the base. The commanding officers reply was to order an all out attack with the only available aircraft-trainers fitted with makeshift bombsites. These attacked the enemy positions and latter were reinforced by aircraft strikes from elsewhere in the theatre. The German aircraft that had come to help the Iraqis were destroyed on the ground and in the air until the RAF established air superiority over the battlefield. An essential if the ground force were to succeed.
Whilst the air battle was being fought, the Levies, armored cars and the army battalion by aggressive patrolling drove the enemy back from key areas. On 6th May, they captured Iraqi positions on the plateau and the enemy began to retreat towards Baghdad. On 17th May, the sight of armored cars of the relieving force from Jordan heartened the besieged. And on 31 May, almost exactly a month after the first attacks, they entered Baghdad, an armistice was signed and a new government installed.
In his report on the campaign, the Air officer Commanding wrote; “I wish to record the outstanding services rendered by the Iraq Levies and the armored car company. It was on these that the close defense of Habbaniya depended and right well did they carry out their task. Their steadiness under fire, their dash, and complete disregard for danger in attack, provided a valuable complement to the action of their comrades in the air, and helped materially towards the demoralizing of a vastly superior enemy force".
He could have added that although the battle was small in comparison with the great battles being fought in the western desert, the outcome was probably more important. If the Germans had seized Iraq, the southern route to the Russian Caucasus front would have been opened, the oil of Iraq would have been denied to the Allies and the outcome of the war could well have hinged on this one small encounter.
Postscript.1
In recognition of this action the Levies were renamed the RAF Levies, the only indigenous RAF force to be so honored.
THE BATTLE OF SARANDE
As part of the expansion to meet the needs of war, an independent paratroop company was established. It consisted of 150 Assyrians and 50 Kurds with a small British element. In 1944 they were deployed to Italy in response to a request from the commander Adriatic Forces for "paratroops trained in mountain warfare". The Adriatic forces had the task of not only helping the partisans in their fight against the Germans but of sealing off the ports the Germans would use when withdrawing troops from the Dodecanese and other parts of the Aegean.
One such port was Sarande on the westernmost tip of Albania. To seize the port a commando (about 250 strong) had landed on the outskirts but could not advance further because of the enemy resistance from Mount Sarande overlooking the port, hence the call for reinforcements.
Just before dawn, the levies were landed by the Royal Navy at a spot about five kilometers south of the port. At first light the German commander saw the landing but decided, as a good commander should, that his men could have breakfast first and be ready to fight the enemy on full stomachs. Little did he know that the Assyrians and Kurds were hardy men whose abode was the mountains of Iraq. One of their pastimes was to race up and down these mountains and the Mount Sarande climb, about half the average height of their home mountains, presented little difficulty. Setting off at a jog they outstripped their British officers and caught the German garrison who were just finishing breakfast. After a brisk firefight, the Germans surrendered and the Levies settled down to their breakfast. Unfortunately, the Germans were not the only people taken by surprise. The Royal Navy and the RAF had not realized that the mountain was in friendly hands and attacked with naval gunfire and rockets. RAB Khamshi Schlemon Bukko was dispatched with a patrol to contact the Commando and get them to send a message to HQ that the objective had been captured and would they please ask the Navy and the RAF to cease firing. Seeing troops coming from the direction of the enemy, the commandos opened fire. Bukko was hit but had enough strength left to call out "Stop shooting. We are British". His cry, in a Syriac accent, was greeted with derision and another burst of fire. "British are you? Not b...y likely". Eventually the commandos saw their error and ceased firing. Henceforth the Paratroop Company sardonically referred to themselves as experts in combined operations, having been shot up by the Navy, Army and RAF in a single operation.
On their return from Sarande, the levies found that they were heroes. In the parochial climate of Adriatic operations, everybody, including the enemy, knew what others were doing and news of the Levies exploits traveled fast. Dressed in red berets adorned with crossed silver kunjars, parachute wings on their uniforms and commando daggers at their sides they cut quite a dash even amongst the polyglot troops who used Bari as their base for relaxation.
The hero worship did not last long as they were soon deployed to Athens where a rebel Communist force had seized most of the city and were close to seizing power. The government and the British ambassador were holed up in the King George Hotel; the RAF headquarters at Kifissia was in enemy hands and only a small portion of the city was held. The levies came under command of the First Airborne Brigade and began the unpleasant, and dangerous, task of house-to-house fighting. This was made even more unpleasant by the order that a cease-fire was to be observed every afternoon to let the housewives do their shopping. How many enemies this order let through their lines disguised as peasant women is anybody's guess. Eventually the task in Athens completed, the company was withdrawn to their base at Gioia Del Colle, near Bari. News of the casualties suffered by the Company had spread and caused disaffection amongst some of the units in Palestine. As the war was ending it was decided that the wisest course would be to concentrate the levies in their home base and begin the demobilization process. It may be worth noting that some RAF units also became restive and a similar procedure was adopted.
POST-WAR
At the end of the war the Levies were reduced in strength to about 2000 men, organized as two wings each of four squadrons. No 1 wing was a mixed force of Assyrians and Kurds based at Habbaniya and No 2 Wing, composed entirely of Marsh Arabs was based at Shaibah.
In 1948 the political scene changed once more and sounded the death knell of Levies. The post-colonial relationship between Iraq and Britain was formalized at the Treaty of Portsmouth. This gave the RAF the right to maintain air bases in Iraq but left unresolved the problem of enlisting Iraqi citizens in the armed forces of a foreign power. The Levies remained in this limbo until 1955 when the British further role and the force was disbanded at Habbaniya in May 1955. Although both the Colonial Office and the Air Ministry developed a comprehensive system of compensation and resettlement for the Assyrians and Kurds who had served the British so loyally the Iraqi government had little affection for them and the hardship inflicted on them later makes distressing reading, to say the least.
A VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
Those of us who served in the Levies developed an affection and respect for the men under our command. By learning their languages and their histories, we developed an even deeper understanding and affection for them. I will carry with me to the end of my days an experience.
Group Captain Joe O’Sullivan RAF retired.
[Mr. O’Sullivan was 83 years old when I asked him if he could write a piece for the web site, this was his reply..." Thank you for your letter Mr. Kiwarkis, or should I say "baseema raba" I will of course write an article about the Levies. I am very old now but I will still find time to do something for my old comrades."]
Mr. O’Sullivan passed away on the 19th October 2004
THE RAF LEVIES
by
Joe O'Sullivan
The Levies were a product of the political upheaval at the end of the Great War that led to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The Wilson Doctrine's Fourteen Points had promised that all subject races of that Empire should be granted self determination at the end of the war. Seizing this, the Kurds declared the independent Republic of Kurdistan and in 1920 the Treaty of Sevres granted them the Villayet, or province, of Mosul and part of Eastern Anatolia. Their jubilation was not to last long because of the conflict between the British and the French over spheres of influence. In 1918 the British had installed Prince Faisal of the Hejaz as King of Syria but the French dethroned him, claiming that Syria had been in France's sphere of influence from the time of the Crusades.
Instead the British, now with a mandate from the League of Nations to guide Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan into full nationhood, offered Faisal the throne of Iraq, a new nation comprising the Villayets, of Basra and Baghdad. Faisal demanded that the Villayet of Mosul be included in the new kingdom. Although Mosul was the Capital newly established Republic of Kurdistan, it was oil-rich, the reason for Faisal's demand. To complicate the issue, Kemal Ataturk, the new ruler of Turkey flatly refused to cede any more territory. These machinations led to the independent Republic of Kurdistan being, in effect, cancelled, a rare occurrence in diplomatic history. The instability that resulted was to cause problems that endanger the peace of the world even to the present day.
For economic reasons and to avoid friction with the new rulers which a garrison of soldiers could cause, the British decided to implement its mandate by the strategy of Air control. The RAF was to be responsible for the security of the three mandated countries with eight squadrons of aircraft, with locally recruited ground troops. The Assyrians, a Christian minority some of whom fled Turkey for the relative safety of Iran and Iraq during the war were now in refugee camps.
The British could turn its humanitarian principles to practical use by recruiting these refugees to guard its air bases and to undertake whatever ground operations were needed. British Army officers with comparable officers from the indigenous ranks commanded all units.
The force commander was RAB Khaila-Leader of 1000.
Battalion commander was RAB Tremma-Leader of 200.
Company commander was RAB Emma- Leader of 100.
Platoon commander was RAB Khamshi- Leader of 50.
In 1920 when the RAF took over, the Iraq Levies, as they were then known, consisted of three cavalry regiments, four infantry battalions, two artillery batteries and a machine-gun company, a total of six thousand Assyrians, Arabs and Kurds. Its tasks were to support RAF operations against Kurds who, not surprisingly, had rebelled when their republic was "cancelled". They continued in revolt throughout the British mandate, and afterwards against the Iraqi government. The RAF reduced this force by more than half, modernized it and established a number of armored car companies. In World War Two these achieved legendary status not only in Iraq but also throughout the Middle East. Their experience in desert operations made them a valuable resource in the Western Desert campaigns.
End of Mandate.
The League of Nations' mandate over Iraq ended in 1932 with the government established as a constitutional monarchy and all the machinery of government in place.
The British government was anxious to maintain its military privileges because of the air roots to India, the far East and Australia. Accordingly, the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1932 that followed the mandate took account of the policy of air control that has been in force since 1922. Under the terms of this Treaty, the RAF was allowed to maintain two major bases, one at Shaibah, south of Basra in the Persian Gulf and the other at Habbaniya, inland and west of Baghdad. The Treaty limited ground forces to two Levies battalions and one Armored Car Company.
Habbaniya, Sinn El Dibban [the place of flies]is some sixty kilometers from Baghdad on a bend of the great river Euphrates that rises in Kurdistan and with the Tigris gave Iraq its ancient geographical name, Mesopotamia. Between these two rivers is the great fertile area that was the granary for the Roman, Persian and other empires of antiquity. The rivers come together and form the Shat el Arab before flowing into the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates is a meandering river and makes periodic attempts to reclaim its old bed, on which the RAF station was built. It helped make the RAF station an oasis in the desert; its Rose gardens were famous, the roads were lined with eucalyptus trees imported from Australia; the houses and messes were fronted with emerald-green Lawns; tennis courts and sports grounds were plentiful. The temperature could be blisteringly hot in summer, reaching 40 deg Centigrade, and bitterly cold in the short winter. The accepted style of living in summer was to keep cool in the house during the day and to dine and sleep in the open air. In hindsight, it must be said that the base was geared for every eventuality except war.
World War Two.
Wartime expansion increased the Levies to a force of some 12000, deployed in Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria. An ethnically mixed force, it contained Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis. The soldiers of these units were deployed in a variety of duties protecting the RAF throughout the Middle East. Most of the bases were far from home, homesickness was rife, and it must be remembered that this was not their war and they were not imbued with the patriotic fervor that bolstered the British, for example, in tolerating war conditions.
Battle of Habbaniya.
Although Iraq was at war with Germany, many of the younger Army officers disagreed and in 1941 seized power. They were commanded by a group of four Colonels; "The Golden Square" who asked the Axis powers for help. Then the British Government deployed three Indian Army Brigades to the Persian Gulf and in response, the Iraqis invested Habbaniya. Some Eight thousand men with artillery and amour occupied the plateau overlooking the airfield and cut its communications with Baghdad and Jordan. The Habbaniya garrison of one armored car company and six companies of Levies were reinforced by one British army Battalion flown in from Shaibah.
On 30th April, the Iraqis demanded a complete cessation of all military activity at the base. The commanding officers reply was to order an all out attack with the only available aircraft-trainers fitted with makeshift bombsites. These attacked the enemy positions and latter were reinforced by aircraft strikes from elsewhere in the theatre. The German aircraft that had come to help the Iraqis were destroyed on the ground and in the air until the RAF established air superiority over the battlefield. An essential if the ground force were to succeed.
Whilst the air battle was being fought, the Levies, armored cars and the army battalion by aggressive patrolling drove the enemy back from key areas. On 6th May, they captured Iraqi positions on the plateau and the enemy began to retreat towards Baghdad. On 17th May, the sight of armored cars of the relieving force from Jordan heartened the besieged. And on 31 May, almost exactly a month after the first attacks, they entered Baghdad, an armistice was signed and a new government installed.
In his report on the campaign, the Air officer Commanding wrote; “I wish to record the outstanding services rendered by the Iraq Levies and the armored car company. It was on these that the close defense of Habbaniya depended and right well did they carry out their task. Their steadiness under fire, their dash, and complete disregard for danger in attack, provided a valuable complement to the action of their comrades in the air, and helped materially towards the demoralizing of a vastly superior enemy force".
He could have added that although the battle was small in comparison with the great battles being fought in the western desert, the outcome was probably more important. If the Germans had seized Iraq, the southern route to the Russian Caucasus front would have been opened, the oil of Iraq would have been denied to the Allies and the outcome of the war could well have hinged on this one small encounter.
Postscript.1
In recognition of this action the Levies were renamed the RAF Levies, the only indigenous RAF force to be so honored.
THE BATTLE OF SARANDE
As part of the expansion to meet the needs of war, an independent paratroop company was established. It consisted of 150 Assyrians and 50 Kurds with a small British element. In 1944 they were deployed to Italy in response to a request from the commander Adriatic Forces for "paratroops trained in mountain warfare". The Adriatic forces had the task of not only helping the partisans in their fight against the Germans but of sealing off the ports the Germans would use when withdrawing troops from the Dodecanese and other parts of the Aegean.
One such port was Sarande on the westernmost tip of Albania. To seize the port a commando (about 250 strong) had landed on the outskirts but could not advance further because of the enemy resistance from Mount Sarande overlooking the port, hence the call for reinforcements.
Just before dawn, the levies were landed by the Royal Navy at a spot about five kilometers south of the port. At first light the German commander saw the landing but decided, as a good commander should, that his men could have breakfast first and be ready to fight the enemy on full stomachs. Little did he know that the Assyrians and Kurds were hardy men whose abode was the mountains of Iraq. One of their pastimes was to race up and down these mountains and the Mount Sarande climb, about half the average height of their home mountains, presented little difficulty. Setting off at a jog they outstripped their British officers and caught the German garrison who were just finishing breakfast. After a brisk firefight, the Germans surrendered and the Levies settled down to their breakfast. Unfortunately, the Germans were not the only people taken by surprise. The Royal Navy and the RAF had not realized that the mountain was in friendly hands and attacked with naval gunfire and rockets. RAB Khamshi Schlemon Bukko was dispatched with a patrol to contact the Commando and get them to send a message to HQ that the objective had been captured and would they please ask the Navy and the RAF to cease firing. Seeing troops coming from the direction of the enemy, the commandos opened fire. Bukko was hit but had enough strength left to call out "Stop shooting. We are British". His cry, in a Syriac accent, was greeted with derision and another burst of fire. "British are you? Not b...y likely". Eventually the commandos saw their error and ceased firing. Henceforth the Paratroop Company sardonically referred to themselves as experts in combined operations, having been shot up by the Navy, Army and RAF in a single operation.
On their return from Sarande, the levies found that they were heroes. In the parochial climate of Adriatic operations, everybody, including the enemy, knew what others were doing and news of the Levies exploits traveled fast. Dressed in red berets adorned with crossed silver kunjars, parachute wings on their uniforms and commando daggers at their sides they cut quite a dash even amongst the polyglot troops who used Bari as their base for relaxation.
The hero worship did not last long as they were soon deployed to Athens where a rebel Communist force had seized most of the city and were close to seizing power. The government and the British ambassador were holed up in the King George Hotel; the RAF headquarters at Kifissia was in enemy hands and only a small portion of the city was held. The levies came under command of the First Airborne Brigade and began the unpleasant, and dangerous, task of house-to-house fighting. This was made even more unpleasant by the order that a cease-fire was to be observed every afternoon to let the housewives do their shopping. How many enemies this order let through their lines disguised as peasant women is anybody's guess. Eventually the task in Athens completed, the company was withdrawn to their base at Gioia Del Colle, near Bari. News of the casualties suffered by the Company had spread and caused disaffection amongst some of the units in Palestine. As the war was ending it was decided that the wisest course would be to concentrate the levies in their home base and begin the demobilization process. It may be worth noting that some RAF units also became restive and a similar procedure was adopted.
POST-WAR
At the end of the war the Levies were reduced in strength to about 2000 men, organized as two wings each of four squadrons. No 1 wing was a mixed force of Assyrians and Kurds based at Habbaniya and No 2 Wing, composed entirely of Marsh Arabs was based at Shaibah.
In 1948 the political scene changed once more and sounded the death knell of Levies. The post-colonial relationship between Iraq and Britain was formalized at the Treaty of Portsmouth. This gave the RAF the right to maintain air bases in Iraq but left unresolved the problem of enlisting Iraqi citizens in the armed forces of a foreign power. The Levies remained in this limbo until 1955 when the British further role and the force was disbanded at Habbaniya in May 1955. Although both the Colonial Office and the Air Ministry developed a comprehensive system of compensation and resettlement for the Assyrians and Kurds who had served the British so loyally the Iraqi government had little affection for them and the hardship inflicted on them later makes distressing reading, to say the least.
A VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
Those of us who served in the Levies developed an affection and respect for the men under our command. By learning their languages and their histories, we developed an even deeper understanding and affection for them. I will carry with me to the end of my days an experience.
Group Captain Joe O’Sullivan RAF retired.
[Mr. O’Sullivan was 83 years old when I asked him if he could write a piece for the web site, this was his reply..." Thank you for your letter Mr. Kiwarkis, or should I say "baseema raba" I will of course write an article about the Levies. I am very old now but I will still find time to do something for my old comrades."]
Mr. O’Sullivan passed away on the 19th October 2004
