Even Hitler himself was sceptical about the transfer of air forces to Iraq and
the existence of sufficient aviation-fuel supplies in Iraq. Hewel to
Ribbentrop, ‘Brief for the Foreign Minister’ (no. 436), 3 May 1941,
DGFP, 690. In the immediate aftermath, Weiszäcker at the GFO cabled
his minister in Tehran: ‘the date of the outbreak of hostilities took us by
surprise and came at a particularly unfavourable moment on account of the
operation in Crete, which required concentration of all our forces.’
Weiszäcker to Ettel, no. 590, 1 June 1941, DGFP, 959.
Pal, Campaign in Western Asia, 97.
Daniel Silverfarb, Britain’s Informal Empire in the Middle East: A Case
Study of Iraq, 1929–1941 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 85.
Saul Kelly, ‘A Succession of Crises: SOE in the Middle East, 1940–45’,
Intelligence and National Security 20, no. 1 (March 2005): 134;
Memorandum on the functions of SOE and G(R), 10 May 1941, HS
3/169, TNA; History of SOE in the Arab World, September 1945, HS
7/86, TNA.
FO 371/24568, TNA; Philip Mattar, ‘Amin Al-Husayni and Iraq’s Quest
for Independence, 1939–41’, Arab Studies Quarterly 6, no. 4 (Fall 1984):
279–81.
No. 65160, 5 May 1941, Survey of Global Activities, War Diary 5, May
1941, HS 7/216, TNA.
CXG 960 to Mid-East, ibid.
Throughout this book, SOE personnel are identified in the first instance by
their symbols, unless no record has survived. The most common prefix for
Middle East personnel was D/H, with D/N used for most personnel
based in Persia and D/K for early Iraq postings. Originally, the D/H orga-
nization dealt with sabotage and the distribution of propaganda, while the
D/K organization handled subversion and black propaganda. However,
such clear competencies became less distinct as the war evolved and field
conditions changed. Some Middle East propaganda officers were assigned
D/Q symbols. See CAB 102/610, TNA. Symbols were associated with
role rather than personal identity; thus Christopher Sykes’ symbol changed
from D/H.206 to D/N.11 when he was transferred from Cairo to Tehran.
See HS 8/971, TNA. According to Steven Kippax, founder of the SOE
Group and ultimate authority on the extant SOE records, there are various
symbols files at Kew in the HS 8 series totalling some 14,500 entries,
which Dr. Kippax is currently compiling as alphabetical lists, two of which
are the sources of the symbols shown in this book. Steven Kippax, ‘SOE
abbreviations’, personal communication with the author, 17 January 2017.
Mid-East and Balkans Section, 14 May 1941, ibid.; History of SOE in the
Arab World, September 1945, HS 7/86, TNA; Jacob A. Stoil, ‘The
Haganah and SOE: Allies and Enemies: Irregular Warfare and Politics in
