Military History of Iraq - British Mandate of Mesopotamia (1918-1932)

British Mandate of Mesopotamia (1918-1932)

• The British invaded Iraq during World War I in the Mesopotamian Campaign. They invaded southern Mesopotamia in November 1914. The Battle of Ctesiphon was fought in November 1915. The undermanned and overstretched British forces were defeated by the Turks, who besieged the British in the city of Kut-al-Amara for 143 days in the Siege of Kut, ending with a British surrender, with 10,000 men becoming prisoners in April 1916. The British took the middle eastern campaign more seriously following this defeat, transferring command from India to the main British command, and General Frederick Stanley Maude was put in charge of British forces, leading the British to a series of victories. The battles of Mohammed Abdul Hassan, Hai and Dahra were won by the British in January 1917. In February, they recaptured Kut. On March 11, 1917, the British occupied Baghdad after the Fall of Baghdad (1917).
• Between 1920 and 1922, the British put down an Iraqi revolt costing them 40 million pounds to do so.
• In January 1921, the Royal Air Force's Mesopotamian Group was formed by raising Mesopotamian Wing to group status
• On 1 October 1922, Mesopotamian Group was absorbed into the newly formed RAF Iraq Command which was given control of all British forces in Iraq.
• Faisal I, leader of Iraq from 1921–33, helped to make his country fully independent in 1932.