1920-1939 | Bombing villages | Civilians slaughtered | Collective punishments | Iraq | Looting and plunder | Punitive operations | RAF crimes

R.A.F. DROP 8,600 INCENDIARY BOMBS ON TWO IRAQI VILLAGES FOR ‘DISOBEDIENCE’

ByAlisdare Hickson

30 November 1923 On 30 November 1923, forty aircraft from five R.A.F. squadrons began round the clock bombing sorties against two villages near the town of Samawah in southern Iraq. The air strikes continued for two days, resulting in the almost total destruction of the villages and a death toll officially estimated at 144 men,…

1920-1939 | Bombing villages | Chemical weapons | Livestock targeted | RAF crimes

The RAF investigates ‘systems of attack’ against ‘uncivilised tribes’

ByAlisdare Hickson

18 December 1922 On 18 December 1922, the RAF’s Deputy Director of Operations and Intelligence, submitted a report to the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard, suggesting possible ‘systems of attack against uncivilised tribes’. Britain was facing insurgencies across the Empire, and was particularly worried about the threat to continued British rule along…

1950-1959 | Bombing villages | Kenya | RAF crimes

RAF starts Kenya bombing campaign – six million bombs dropped

ByAlisdare Hickson

18 November 1953 On 18 November 1953, the RAF commenced a massive carpet bombing operation against Mau Mau insurgents opposed to British rule in Kenya. Code-named Operation Mushroom, and deploying enormous quad engine Lincoln heavy bombers, the campaign was to see 900 sorties over the next two years dropping six million bombs, weighing 50,000 tons,…

1920-1939 | Bombing villages | Collective punishments | Iraq | Punitive operations | RAF crimes

Two Iraqi villages flattened after they refuse to pay fines

ByAlisdare Hickson

24 October 1927 At 0500 hours on 24 October 1927, at Shattrah RAF base, outside Al-Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, a  notice was erected for pilots with a short message – ‘Carry on Bombing !’  The target was the villages of the Al Hatim tribe, which had already endured two days of bombing. The inhabitants had…

1900-1919 | Bombing villages | Pakistan | RAF crimes

The RAF drops incendiary bombs on North West Frontier villages

ByAlisdare Hickson

9 October 1919 On 9 October 1919, sixteen RAF aircraft dropped incendiary bombs on several villages near Wana in Waziristan on India’s North West Frontier. The intent was to punish the entire population, as it was suspected that some of them had participated in armed resistance against British incursions into their territory. An unforgivable crime. …

1920-1939 | Bombing villages | Burning villages | Collective punishments | Kurdistan | Livestock targeted | Punitive operations | RAF crimes

Kurdish valley of villages set on fire ‘from end to end’

ByAlisdare Hickson

12 September 1921 On Monday 12 September 1921, at 0530 hours the first pair of RAF biplane bombers, of Number 55 Squadron, took off from Mosul to take part in a surprise day long assault by mounted troops and aircraft on four Kurdish villages in the Harir Valley, some thirty miles north east of Erbil…

1920-1939 | Bombing villages | Collective punishments | Pakistan | Punitive operations | RAF crimes

Biggles author on bombing North West Frontier villages for non-payment of fines

ByAlisdare Hickson

30 August 1930 On 30 August 1930, W.E. Johns, an R.A.F. captain and author of the Biggles adventure series,  published an article for the weekly illustrated newspaper The Graphic, under the headline ‘Bombing the Afridis.’ He recounted how entire tribal areas on India’s North West Frontier would be bombed intensively as a collective punishment for failing to pay a…

1920-1939 | Bombing towns & cities | Kurdistan | RAF crimes

Crowded tea shop obliterated as RAF target rebel Kurdish chief

ByAlisdare Hickson

16 August 1923 On 16 August 1923, the RAF conducted a surprise bombing attack on the home of the Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji in the Kurdish town of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq. He was becoming dangerously popular among a population who felt the British were cheating them of their independence and was suspected of conspiring against…

1920-1939 | Bombing villages | Media propaganda | Pakistan | RAF crimes

RAF starts nine day bombing campaign against Afridi villages

ByAlisdare Hickson

4 August 1930 On 4 August 1930, the R.A.F. commenced a nine day bombing campaign, deploying over 70 aircraft on 1,835 hours of sorties against Afridi villages, deemed to be unfriendly. Most of the settlements were located in the Bara Valley in the remote North West Frontier region of British India, although the surrounding valleys…

1940-1949 | Bombing towns & cities | Germany | RAF crimes

RAF fire bombing destroys Hamburg, killing over 18,000

ByAlisdare Hickson

28 July 1943 At about 12.55 am on Wednesday 28 July 1943, RAF Pathfinder aircraft began to drop their target indicators, lighting up the German city of Hamburg.  791 aircraft had already bombed Hamburg three nights earlier [see 25 July 1943], and Bomber Command planners had been impressed with how well the city burned, killing…