Thanks to Pauline Collins (the grand-daughter of Corporal Mark Osborne of 70 Squadron who died in Iraq and was buried at the Ma'Asker Cemetery in Plot 2 Row A Grave 2) who sent me several photographs of her grandfather's burial, I have been able to add service details for three Royal Air Force men who were buried at Ma'Asker close to the grave of Corporal Osborne, simply by reading the inscription on their headstones (see attached photos). This means that 55 Squadron and 70 Squadron deaths have both increased by 1 (LAC Reginald Lloyd and Cpl Mark Osborne respectively) and the count for 'Aircraft Depot Iraq' deaths has also increased by 1 (AC1 Stanley Pain). To see all of the photos of Corporal Mark Osborne's burial, visit the OLD BURIAL PHOTOS page of this website or carry out a search on the word 'Osborne'. RAF headstones in Plot 2 Row A at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad Breakdown by Service Type and History of the 300 graves at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad RAF headstones in Plot 2 Row A at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad

This photograph was kindly sent me by Pauline Collins, the grand-daughter of Corporal Mark Cyril Osborne of LXX (70) Squadron, who served in Iraq for two years before dying of heat-stroke and Heart failure in July 1935 and buried in the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, part of RAF Hinaidi. Amongst his possessions was a menu for the farewell dinner at LXX Squadron, when new arrivals came from England and others left their Baghdad posting. Note the captions in the top cartoon, " Here we are again " from the new arrivals and " Hard Luck " from the resident Sergeant Major in reply. The menu is signed by the Commanding Officer of LXX Squadron, Wing Commander William Sowrey, DFC, AFC.

Over the past few months I have had several conversations with Ron Workman and Lucille Mole (the children of Dorothy Marks, Leonard Marks’ second daughter) and they have kindly provided me with family photographs and details as to the movements of the Marks family before and after the deaths of their grandfather Leonard Marks and his first-born child Phoebe, both of whom were buried in the Ma’Asker al Raschid RAF cemetery. Ron and Lucille are very keen to see the cemetery restored and have offered to pay for new headstones for both Phoebe and Leonard Marks if that proves to be possible. For more photographs and the full story of the Marks family, see the Old Burial Photos on this website.

Few people realise that nine of the graves at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid Cemetery (representing 12.5% of all British Army burials at Ma’Asker) are for men who were serving with Scottish Regiments at the time of their death, with eight men serving with the 2nd Brigade of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and one man serving with the City of Glasgow Regiment, in 1929 called the Highland Light Infantry. Though only 71 of the original 300 headstones remain in an identifiable condition, two of the nine Scots' Regiment headstones have survived the ravages of time and neglect (see images below). I have also added below details as to when the men were buried and the exact location of their graves.

It is with great regret that I have to report the death of Peter Burlton, who for many years was the head historian of the now disbanded RAF Habbaniya Association. In his capacity as a military researcher, Peter spent countless hours at the Public Records Office in Kew and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headquarters researching the history of the various Royal Air Force bases in Iraq, most notably RAF Habbaniya and RAF Hinaidi. Peter's knowledge and research into the British men and women who died in Iraq and were buried at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery (formerly the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery) were invaluable to me in 2018. At that time I had hit a 'brick wall' with bureaucratic obstacles preventing me from determining the reason why this cemetery for British Service personnel had been abandoned by both the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the British Ministry of Defence, upon whose land the cemetery had been built back in the early nineteen-twenties. I was also finding it difficult to build up a complete list of the 299 (now recognised as being 300) men, women and one baby girl who were buried there. Peter came to the rescue by giving me access to his records as well as persuading the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to provide him with a copy of their records for the Ma'Asker cemetery, which until that time had not been made available to the general public. From this database I was able to research the military service history for most of the men who were buried at Ma'Asker and eventually build up a portfolio of photos and background details from descendants of the dead and others who had served in Iraq and expressed interest in the project. Over the past six years, with the help of Peter and the invaluable assistance and driving force provided by two Defence Attachés at the British Embassy in Baghdad, some progress has been made in restoring the Ma'Asker Cemetery to its former glory. Though Peter did live to see the cemetery emerge from being part of an Iraqi rubbish dump and made secure with a new brick wall constructed around its perimeter in October 2021, it is sad that he will not witness the next and most important phase of restoration, that of re-making and erecting the 300 headstones at Ma'Asker. Though our work has been unofficial and 'behind the scenes' on a voluntary basis, I dearly hope that one day Peter's contribution to the restoration of the British cemeteries at both RAF Habbaniya and RAF Hinaidi will be officially recognised. Rest in Peace Peter. (Refer also to the main story page for Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery )

With 150 Blog/News items as well as more than 250 pages of information on numerous topics, I have decided to add a 'Search' function to my website. On any page you can type a word or group of words in the 'Search Text . . . . ' box just below the main menu and every occurrence of that text string will be displayed. See attached image for an example of a search for the word 'Basingstoke'.

I received a query regarding the age of the Memorial at the Habbaniya War Cemetery in Iraq, erected in honour of the 106 men of the RAF Iraq Levies who died whilst fighting in Iraq during WW2 (though seventeen of the names on the memorial were for deaths post WW2 up until December 1947) . To my knowledge the memorial was constructed a few years after the end of WW2 but I'm not sure as to the exact date. I have attached a photo of the Habbaniya Cemetery taken during the late 'fifties before the Royal Air Force closed the base in May 1959. After the complete restoration by the CWGC of the cemetery at Habbaniya in 2018/19, the cemetery became overgrown again, but with the help of the British and Australian Embassies in Baghdad, a gardening/caretaker contract has been set in place, funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The photos I have put on my site (link copied below) were taken last year and you can see that the cemetery is in good condition again.   See also https://www.stevebusterjohnson.com/habbaniya-cemetery-restoration/raf-levies-memorial-names

On the morning of the 17th April 1957, a Royal Air Force transport Vickers Valetta of 114 Squadron (Serial No: VW832) took off from Aqaba in South Jordan with 3 crew members and 24 military personnel on board (18 from the 10th Hussars, 5 from the REMEs and 1 from the Army Catering Corps). Its destination was RAF Habbaniya. What was later determined as being structural failure due to extreme turbulence, after five minutes airborne, its left wing separated from the fuselage and the aircraft fell from the sky, crashing in a fireball, with everyone on board killed. The twenty-seven bodies were transported to RAF Habbaniya where they were buried in a mass grave side by side in surname alphabetic order, occupying an area previously allocated for seven graves (Grave 1 to Grave 7) in Row B of Plot 5. As can be seen from the photographs of Plot 5, the twenty-seven headstones are erected in a straight line, almost touching. The names are listed on this page of my website , with links to individual headstone photographs.

With the kind assistance of the Australian Embassy in Baghdad and Dr Christopher Morris of the RAF Habbaniya Association over the past six months, I recently completed (18th January 2024) an interactive photographic database of the 290 headstones at the Habbaniya War Cemetery, located 50 miles west of Baghdad. Of this number, 173 graves were for WW2 deaths and 117 for burials that took place 'between the Wars' or post WW2. However, when trying to reconcile the number of photographs with the CWGC's own files and also the records kept by the RAF Habbaniya Association, I discovered that a grave had been overlooked when the full restoration of the cemetery was carried out in 2018/19. During the restoration process, the original (and almost illegible) headstone for the Norwegian sailor, First Officer Oskar Magnus Kristiansen of the M T Bralanta, was overlooked and since 2019, his grave (Plot 6, Row C, Grave 1) has remained unmarked. I immediately contacted the CWGC with photographic proof of this (see images below) and was advised on the 20th January that a meeting had been arranged between James King, the Area Director Africa & Asia CWGC and his counterpart at the Norwegian Department of Cultural Heritage to discuss the matter. The meeting took place at the end of January 2024 at which it was agreed that the CWGC would fabricate a new headstone on behalf of Norwegian War Graves and shipped to Habbaniya the next time the CWGC is scheduled to carry out works in Iraq. The headstone will be erected in its original location, Plot 6 Row C Grave 1 (see below). I will update this post as and when progress is made.

A recent query required me to identify the servicemen who were buried at the RAF Cemetery in Baghdad 'between the two World Wars'. The cemetery, now called the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery but originally named the RAF Hinaidi Peace Cemetery, is the final resting place of three hundred airmen, soldiers and seamen of the British forces including a number of civilians working for the Royal Air Force, who died in the service of their country in the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties. The attached diagram may be of interest to others. In summary, 15 officers and NCOs of the British Army who were attached to the RAF Iraq Levies , died between December 1921 and January 1931 in Iraq and were buried at Ma'Asker (short name "Rasheed"). Out of the 300 burials, 24 men of the six RAF Armoured Car Companies and HQ died between June 1922 and May 1935 and were buried at Ma'Asker. For more details see also the page on this website that provides a breakdown of burials by service type (including those of the Armoured Car Companies and those attached to the RAF Iraq Levies.

6 Squadron Hurricanes were  involved in the build-up to Operation ‘Flounced’ as well as the raid itself, both in attacking ground targets on the island of Brac in the Adriatic Sea as well as carrying out sorties against shipping from the squadron’s bases in Italy. However, no casualties were suffered by 6 Squadron during the two days of the actual raid, not on the island nor in the air. As can be seen in the main story on my website , four 6 Squadron pilots lost their lives during the months of May and June in 1944, so they are possible candidates for the memorial to 6 Squadron on Brac. With two of the men who died in known graves, it is more likely that the memorial atop of the highest point on the island is honouring the two 6 Squadron pilots who left Vis on the 23rd May 1944 for a reconnaissance patrol and lost their lives while taking part in the sinking of an enemy ship 160 km NW of Brac but whose bodies were never recovered . Their names were Flying Officer William Tye and Flying Officer John Neville Grey.

As part of researching for my book, " Leaning on a Lamp Post ", I was required to find everything I could about life in Basingstoke, England, during the nineteen-tens. This entailed working out the layout of the town at that time as well as the locations of specific premises, including the shops owned by Thomas Burberry, founder of the Burberry empire. I also went through the Johnstone & Johnson family photographic archives as both my great grandfather and maternal grandmother worked for Thomas Burberry, my great grandfather from the late eighteen hundreds through to the nineteen-thirties. My grandmother was a buyer in the Haberdashery department for two years and that is how she was introduced to Fred Johnstone, my mother's father. Somehow I overlooked two important photos that show my great grandfather sitting with his employees in the Burberry Emporium building shortly after the Armistice in late 1918. William Johnstone was the foreman of the tailoring department and had more than 130 staff under his control. Throughout the whole of his time working with Thomas Burberry, my great grandfather always wore an immaculate three piece suit, made to measure of course at Burberry, a habit he continued well after his retirement whenever we visited his home in Worting Street, Basingstoke, only a walk away from where he once worked. Shown below are the two family photos I recently discovered. My great grandfather is seated amongst the 130+ seamtresses who worked for him at the new Emporium building In Winchester Street, Basingstoke.

In February 1923, Vickers Vernon aircraft from 70 Squadron took part in transporting 500 troops to Kirkuk, for them to drive away Kurdish forces that had taken over the outskirts of Kirkuk. Pictured here is Vickers Vernon Mk I, J6883 in the process of loading troops. This mission was the first of its kind in airlifting soldiers in a conflict. This photograph was taken by the then Pilot Officer (later Air Commodore) David W F Bonham-Carter and is reproduced here with the kind permission of Jim Cownie, his grandson. For more on 70 Squadron's operations at RAF Hinaidi, click HERE.

This photograph was taken by the then Pilot Officer (later Air Commodore) David W F Bonham-Carter of several Vickers Vernon transport aircraft of 70 Squadron RAF parked inside the main 70 Squadron hangar at RAF Hinaidi, Baghdad, c1923. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of Jim Cownie, grandson of the photographer.

This photograph was taken by the then Pilot Officer (later Air Commodore) David W F Bonham-Carter from the cockpit of a 6 Squadron Bristol F2B Fighter, showing a second 6 Squadron F2B flying over the yet to be completed RAF Hinaidi cantonment (taken in late 1922 to early 1923). In the bottom right hand corner can be seen some of the aircraft hangars and the north-western corner of the RAF airfield. The centre of Baghdad is in the middle of the photograph where the River Tigris meets the horizon. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of Jim Cownie, grandson of the photographer.

I have just added to my website high resolution photographs of the Memorial at the RAF Habbaniya War Cemetery in Iraq, erected to honour the 106 men of the Royal Air Force Iraq Levies who lost their lives 'between the World Wars' during the periods of unrest in Iraq. I have split the memorial into five photographs, the first of them added below. Click HERE to see all of the photographs as well as the names of every man honoured on the memorial.

When the Iraqi forces lay siege to RAF Habbaniya on the 2nd May 1941 (part of the Battle of Habbaniya), the British were caught unawares. Though they were able to evacuate women and children from the base (some of whom had only recently escaped from Baghdad to the safety of Habbaniya) there was no operational RAF squadron based on the airfield to carry out counter-attacks against the enemy. There was however one RAF unit at Habbaniya, the No 4 Flying Training School RAF, equipped with Mk I Oxfords. The Mk I Airspeed Oxford was a converted civilian aircraft used for training flight crews, equipped with a machine gun turret on the top of the fuselage and capable of dropping practice bombs from the belly of the fuselage. The Oxfords were quickly fitted with machine guns and bomb racks and it was in an Oxford that Flight Sergeant Harold Brattan took part in the Battle of Habbaniya, flying with a gunner who would release eight 20 lb bombs, the maximum weight the aircraft could carry, during day and night raids on enemy positions. Sadly, on the 8th May, two days after the end of the siege, whilst flying at low level on a bombing raid near Ramadi, twenty-one miles west of Habbaniya, Sgt Brattan was struck by a sniper’s bullet and killed. His gunner, AC1 Kenneth Clifton, took control of the aircraft and successfully landed back at RAF Habbaniya at the third attempt. For this, Kenneth Clifton was awarded the DFM (Distinguished Flying Medal). Harold Brattan was buried that day in the RAF Habbaniya War Cemetery, Plot 1 Row G Grave 8. The day after I added photographs of all 290 headstones at RAF Habbaniya to this website, I answered Lynn Brattan's query on the 'Find a Grave' website by adding a photograph of Flt Sgt Brattan's headstone. In reply, Lynn sent me an email explaining her connection to Harold - the content of Lynn's message being " Thank you so much for photo of Harold's gravestone. I will show my mum in law . . . . . . . She briefly went out with Harold and dated Harold just before he died and then dated and married Harold's brother William. " I have attached several photos to this post which add detail to Harold Brattan's death and the bravery of Kenneth Clifton in bringing the aircraft under control and returning to RAF Habbaniya. The first photograph is of Harold Brattan. Note also that the first headstone photo is of the original headstone and the second is of the new headstone that was erected in 2019 by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission when the Habbaniya War Cemetery was completely restored. The group photo is of the members of the No: 4 Service Flying Training School, taken in February 1940. Added June 2024 For anyone wanting to read the full story of the Siege of Habbaniya, Richard Chancellor has just informed me of a book entitled "The Big Little War", by James Dunford Wood .