000			01525cam a2200169 4500
020			_a9781848840904 (hbk.) : _c19.99 GBP
100	1		_aJAMES Barrie G.
245			_aHitler's gulf war : _bthe fight for Iraq 1941 / _cBarrie G. James.
260			_aBarnsley : _bPen & Sword Aviation, _c2009.
300			_axii, 244 pages ; 24 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aDuring the spring of 1941, on an isolated, indefensible airfield 55 miles from Baghdad a group of poorly armed and outnumbered RAF airman equipped with obsolete aircraft, together with a few soldiers, outfought the much larger and better equipped Iraqi forces who were aided by the Germans and Italians. The engagement would prove to be the first real defeat of the Germans in World War Two. After an heroic defence, the airfield was finally relieved by a hastily assembled column of trucks, taxis, buses and antiquated armoured cars carrying infantry and Bedouins. The column had fought its way across a 500 mile barren, unmapped desert enduring temperatures approaching fifty degrees C to reach the airfield. In a gigantic game of bluff less than fifteen hundred soldiers supported by the RAF in their obsolete aircraft against odds of twenty to one went on to take Baghdad. They foiled a coup, returned a King to his throne and destroyed Axis aspirations in the Middle East.
650			_aWORLD WAR, 1939-1945 _xCAMPAIGNS _zIRAQ
945			_i41763-3001 _rY _sY
945			_i41763-4001 _rY _sY
945			_i41763-2001 _rY _sY
999			_c26454 _d26454