蜜芽传媒

Mr H D Hugill
11 Lytham Avenue
Dinnington
Sheffield
S25 2TB

I joined the RAF in 1937 at just 17yrs I had the choice of employment 鈥� coalmines or the services.
By 1938 following square bashing and trade training I found myself serving on a flying training squadron stationed at Abu-Suir near Ismailier, Egypt. Inevitably the Second World War started Sept 1939. Being located close to the Suez canal, it was decided by the top brass that training of pilots in a war ZONE was not on so we commenced relocation to Habbania in Iraq which meant a journey to El Kantara where we crossed the Suez Canal and on to Palestine a train journey took us to Haifa and the Golan Hights from where we could see in the distance the sea of Galilee and Nazereth.
By this time we were accommodated in road vehicles, which conveyed us to Damascus in Syria where we stayed in a transit camp awaiting further transport which would eventually take us through the Syrian Desert and on to Habbaniar 55 miles from Baghdad.
The journey took several days, which were very hot during the daytime but very cold at night.
Our first port of call being one of the oil pumping stations at RUTBAR. Aircraft called there occasionally, there being no runway, just desert scrub. Eventually our designation was reached and proved to be somewhat of a 鈥淪hangri-har鈥� which was what we felt compared to other stations we had been on.
On one side of the station was the river Euphrates then out airstrip then a plateau of hills which took us down to a large lake that received visits now and then from the Flying Boat Air Mail Service, flying between London and Karachi.
I previously referred to Habbania as a 鈥楽hangri-har鈥� because of the numerous facilities it offered 鈥� i.e. each accommodation hut was served by an Iraqi bearer plus his 鈥楥hicko鈥�, they kept the hut clean and tidy, each of use being given a mug of tea in the morning on waking and one鈥檚 bed being remade.
Sport and entertainment was provided for and boasted some of the best swimming pools around, we also had an open air cinema. Outdoor sport took place on a large Sport field within the station perimeter.
On the lake and beyond the plateau was a pontoon moored we could swim out to this and fish etc. The pontoon being used by the Flying Boat carrying mail.
It was incredable that all these facilities were available to us in wartime.
Our daily routine consisted of arising quite early then getting down to the hangers and pushing out the aircraft on to the airfield perimeter. Flying Instruction would start and finish early due to it becoming very hot, in the evenings we would visit the cinema or the NAFFI to down a few pints.
All this changed quite suddenly when the River Euphrates threatened to flood the whole station. We moved out and set up sleeping quarters in tents on the plateau. Eventually we were able to return to the station.
By this time April 1941, the then Iraqi Government was run by a Rashid Ali and the existing treaty by the governments Iraq and Britain was broken, resulting in the Iraqi army of 45,000 troops surrounding the station with their guns and artillery, with assistance from the German Air Force stationed at Mosul.
Thus commenced the siege of Habbania, which lasted for four weeks with constant shelling and bombing.
We of course did not remain idle to this threat but hastily prepared our aircraft for operating from the sports field within the stations perimeter. To accomplish this we had to do some dismantling to the planes, which were fabric covered bi-planes, it was light work 鈥� we also fitted bomb racks to carry 20lb dispersal bombs.
This was completed on the sports field from which the aircraft commenced operations to repulse the Iraqis. Throughout this time they kept up their shelling and bombing with help from the German Air Force.
Meanwhile in between these sorties we were kept busy unpacking the ammunition boxes and carrying out emergency repairs to the planes, patching wings and bodies that had been damaged from the enemy guns.
After one month of fighting the Iraqis ceased their siege- our Flying Training Squadron was disbanded. Rumours were around to the effect of being reformed and relocated in Nairobi S.Africa.
This did not happen to myself, I was posted back to Egypt at Kasfreet where I was employed in the construction of Tomahawk fighters for use in the Western Desert.
Eventually later in the year I was returned to Habbania where I found I was listed for a return to the UK/
Embarkation was from UmQasar on the Shatol-Arab waterway, which led to the Gulf down the Red Sea, passing the horn of Africa and on to Bombay India 鈥� we were sent on to a transit camp for 3 weeks, awaiting a ship for our final transport to England calling at Shri Lanka 鈥� Durban, Cape Town and Freetown in Sierra Leone. I arrived in Liverpool Feb.1942.
Thus ends my story of the war in Iraq. April 1941 a more fully account of this operation is described in a book Entitled 鈥淭he War that never was鈥� written by Squadron Leader. Anthony Dudgeon.

H. D .Hugill SGT

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