Tanks can be devastating weapons so small countries should keep close track of them. These British gifted Churchill tanks were out of date and unreliable. When they were ordered to Jordan they instead headed for the Palace. The Royal Guard stood down and then the Royal Family was gunned down. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
There were two visions of pan Arab unity in the 1950s. Nasser’s socialist vision backed by the USSR. There was also a rival Hashemite vision backed by Britain. Here we see WWII surplus Churchill heavy tanks ready to make the Hashemite case. In Syria and Egypt similar vintage but superior Soviet T34 was backing up their side. Intimately the people decide such things and the Hashemites couldn’t even trust their tank crews.
Todays stamp is issue A34, an eight Fils stamp issued by the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq on January 6th, 1958. This was a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating Iraqi Army Day. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents used.
King Faisal III came on to the Iraqi throne in 1938 at the age of three after the mysterious death of his father in a car crash in Switzerland. There was then a Regency with an Uncle and a lot of mysterious foreign advisors. In 1941, there was a coup where disgruntaled officers attempted to align with Germany. A British, Arab Legion invasion followed that restored the child King. My British father’s military service included this campaign. In 1953, Faisal reached his majority but the cast of characters didn’t change much. Oil revenue was beginning to flow but the rewards were not making it to the average Iraqi. The Hashemites were counting on oil revenue to grease the wheels of their planned coming together of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Kuwait.
At this same period, Nasser in Egypt was offering an alternative socialist pan Arab vision that seemed to offer a more modern choice to the middle class. His United Arab Republic signed up Syria and North Yemen and there was much intrigue going on in Lebanon. In order to bolster Jordan’s position in this, two armored Brigades of the Iraqi Army were ordered to Jordan in 1958. To do so, they had to pass through Baghdad. Their Nasser sympathetic commanders saw the opportunity. Churchill tanks drove to the radio station, the defense ministry and the Palace. The Royal Guard stood down. The Royal Family was marched outside the Palace and shot. One Princess survived being shot and escaped.
The two chief coup plotters both had turns leading Iraq. One was then executed and the other had his plane sabotaged by domestic rivals. Neither followed up on their alleged belief in Nasser’s vision of an United Arab Republic. The oil rich cannot sign on to the level of subsity from rich to poor that union demands.
The Churchill tank was hopelessly obsolete even before the end of World War II. It was a heavy tank with armor protection on a par with the contemporary German Tiger tank. Where the Tiger had an 88mm gun, the Churchill tank started with only a 40mm gun. The tank was later uprated with a 57mm gun and later some were retrofitted with 75mm turrets taken from American Sherman tanks. The Iraqi ones appear to have the 57mm gun. The tanks would not have been much good against Syrian/Soviet T34s but Syria also possessed old German Panzer IVs passed on from the French. so the old tanks might have had a reunion in the desert, Iraq had more modern new build British Centurions on order, but the Churchills proved very capable in a coup.
Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering about middle eastern Royals spending so much on sophisticated weapons when they can’t trust those who will operate it. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting