Habbaniya - The Matrix Games version of West Front

6 May, 1941 Habbaniya Airbase west of Faluja, Iraq was the focus of the hostility of the Golden Triangle revolt against the British in Iraq. Two Iraqi Brigades including its few armoured forces and extra artillery occupied the heights overlooking the base. A weak battalion of Indian troops was flown in from Basra to reinforce the local Assyrian Militia and RAF ground personel of the garrison. As an RAF training center there were about 60 various trainers and obsolte warplanes that were rigged up with bomb racks and turned into an improvised airforce that was to provide ground support, and combat the Iraqi airforce and Axis airforces sent to Mosul to support the Iraqis. Aircraft were decisive in this battle, flying hundreds of ground support sorties dispite the shelling of the runway they continued flying off the Polo pitch. They also defeated the Iraqi airforce destroying most of it on the ground and besting it in the air. After several days of air bombardment and agressive night patrols against their lines at night the Iraqis began to withdraw. The British discovering this move launched an attack on the rearguard supported by the Habbaniyah garrison and their little air force.