All the Countries We've Ever Invaded

by Stuart Laycock

  With French influence in India declining, we had more opportunity to challenge local rulers for power. Between 1766 and 1799 we fought four wars against Mysore, which ended finally with a decisive British victory at the Battle of Seringapatam in 1799, in which Tipu Sultan was killed.

  In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century we fought a string of wars against the Maratha Empire. The First Maratha War of 1777–83 was a conflict that saw internal disputes both on the Maratha side and on the British side. We lost the Battle of Wadgaon, but won a subsequent confrontation. The Second Maratha War of 1803–05 saw more tough fighting. Arthur Wellesley (yes him) won the Battle of Assaye and later said that it had been a harder battle than Waterloo. The Third Maratha War of 1817–18 was decisive. We won significant victories at the Battle of Sitapuldi and the Battle of Mahidpur. The war destroyed the Maratha Empire as a rival to British power in India.

  By now the East India Company was in control of much of India and over the ensuing decades its power spread even further. For instance, in the 1840s the Sikh Wars saw the spread of British control through what is now the part of Punjab that is within India, as well as the part that today is within Pakistan. In 1854 the company annexed Berar, and in 1856 captured Oudh (Awadh). In 1858 the Indian Rebellion broke out, leading to a tough conflict and harsh action by the British.

  It was after the rebellion that the British government itself took over control of India from the East India Company.

  During 1944, the Japanese invaded India and it took bitter fighting to push them out.

  In 1947 India became independent.

  Indonesia

  We took an early interest in what is now Indonesia. Drake, for instance, on a round-the-world voyage came home via Java, Sulawesi and the Moluccas (Maluku Islands). Of the European powers, it was the Portuguese first, and then more extensively and successfully the Dutch, who became deeply involved in this part of the world.

  Rivalry between the Dutch and ourselves over this area was at times extremely bitter. In the notorious and murky Amboyna Affair, some East India Company men were executed by a Dutch East India court on the charge of conspiring to seize the Dutch-held fortress at Amboyna, now called Ambon. This became a source of continuing English anger towards Holland and played a part in the wars between England and Holland. In 1654, Cromwell forced the Dutch to pay financial compensation to the victims’ descendants and give us Manhattan as well. In 1673, Dryden produced the tragedy Amboyna; or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants. I’ve never read the play myself, but judging from the title you would guess that Dryden doesn’t make the Dutch look good in it.

  We still managed to set up in business at, among other places, Bengkulu on the south-western coast of Sumatra, where we established a trading post in 1685 and built Fort Marlborough in 1714. And in 1793, British naval officer Lieutenant John Hayes endeavoured to establish a settlement near Manokwari, in Irian Jaya.

  Inevitably, when we ended up at war with Holland at the end of the eighteenth century, the extensive territories it controlled in what is now Indonesia were an obvious target for us.

  Our first invasion started in the last years of the eighteenth century after a pro-French regime had come to power in Holland. We took Malacca, Padang, Ambon and the Bandas without much trouble. Admiral Peter Rainier played a prominent role in these events, and when we captured a Dutch 16-gun brig at Kuyper’s Island, Java, on 23 August 1800, its captors took it into service as HMS Admiral Rainier. Temate resisted for a while, but finally fell in 1801. There was a slightly messy and confusing battle at Kupang on Timor, which ended with some of our troops dead, a lot of the locals killed, and us bombarding the town. After all that, though, we handed back what we had taken from the Dutch under a peace treaty of 1802.

  Then in 1810, as hostilities resumed, we returned. We took Ambon again, despite French reinforcements. Some of the garrison at Temate mutinied and we took that. And then we started working our way through assorted other Dutch posts as Lord Minto (great name) moved to expel the Dutch from Java. The campaign took just forty-five days. We installed Thomas Stamford Raffles as lieutenant-governor. Yes, before he got Singapore, he was our man running a bit of what’s now Indonesia for us. Sadly, his wife Olivia died there in 1814. The Anglo-Dutch convention of 1814 again gave territory back the Dutch.

  Finally, an 1824 treaty between us and the Dutch separated our spheres of influence, giving us control of what would become Malaysia and the Dutch what would become Indonesia.

  With the Second World War we were back in Indonesia. As the Japanese swept through the Dutch East Indies in 1941 and 1942, forces were sent to help the Dutch. These were mainly Australian, but there were also British. For example, the British 79th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery landed in Dutch-controlled West Timor in February 1942. They fought bravely against both Japanese air and ground attacks, but eventually Timor fell to the Japanese, though guerrilla action against them continued.

  Then in 1945 we landed again in Indonesia in the face of heavy fighting. After the Japanese surrender there was an explosive situation in Indonesia in which pro-independence Indonesians were trying to prevent the return of Dutch colonial rule. British forces were supposed to restore Dutch control and disarm the Japanese. The Japanese ended up at times both helping the pro-independence Indonesians and fighting them. In this chaotic and dangerous situation, Brigadier Mallaby was killed in Surabaya and in November 1945 we launched an attack on the pro-independence forces there, supported by tanks, air and sea bombardment (including from HMS Cavalier). Many Indonesians were killed, and there were a lot of British and Indian casualties as well, before Surabaya fell. Our troops left Indonesia later that month, and after a bitter struggle Holland recognised Indonesian independence in 1949.

  Iran

  All Brits know we have invaded Iraq, yet many tend to think we haven’t invaded Iran. But we have on a number of occasions, something that the average Iranian in contrast to the average Brit probably knows very well.

  As with the Gulf States, our early involvement with Iran (Persia, as it was known) is linked to the East India Company’s activities and its desire to protect them.

  In 1763, the East India Company opened a trading post at Bushehr, a port that was to play a major role in our relations with the country (and still does since the site of Iran’s controversial nuclear reactor is nearby).

  After that, the East India Company’s desire to protect its ships from attack at sea led to a number of operations against targets in what is present-day Iran. Thus, for instance, in 1809, after his attack on Ras al-Khaimah in the current-day United Arab Emirates, Captain Wainwright ordered his flotilla to cross the Persian Gulf and attack the town of Bandar Lengeh in present-day Iran. The locals fled and we burned twenty dhows. Wainwright’s forces then moved on to the Iranian Qeshm Island in the Straits of Hormuz. Here Wainwright landed troops, and with the sloop Fury firing in support the landing party, despite suffering heavy casualties, eventually managed to capture a fort.

  In 1856, full-scale war broke out between us and Persia, and a more serious and extensive invasion got under way. This war started over two major issues. First, the Persians had once controlled Herat in Afghanistan and wanted to retake it. After several attempts in 1856, with Russian encouragement, they succeeded. Second, things had been getting rather complicated diplomatically in Tehran. In this, the British Ambassador had been accused of having improper relations with the wife of a man he wanted to appoint as secretary. To make matters even more complex, the wife happened to be a sister of one of the Shah of Persia’s wives. When the Persians arrested the woman, our ambassador demanded she be released and when she wasn’t he broke off relations with Persia.

  The war was on and Bushehr was our first major target. We landed an army under Major General Stalker at Hallila Bay, 12 miles south of Bushehr, in December 1856, and while that fought its way towards Bushehr, the fleet under Rear Admiral Sir Henry Leeke prepared to attack the town too. There was a
potentially problematic incident when ships ran aground due to the tides, but they continued firing while stuck and eventually the combined land and sea attack forced the port to surrender. The Persian flag was cut down and the British colours hoisted.

  In 1857, reinforcements arrived in the shape of two divisions from India under the command of General Sir James Outram. In February, he advanced inland from Bushehr and clashed with a Persian force gathered there. After a dramatic cavalry charge of the 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry, the Persians were defeated, losing at least 700 killed, compared to only sixteen men killed on our side.

  A subsequent operation involved a flotilla of three steamers making its way up the Karun River as far as the Persian, now Iranian, town of Ahvaz. Captain Rennie landed his 300 troops and with, supporting fire from the gunboats, took the town.

  Eventually peace was signed. The Persians withdrew from Herat and we withdrew from Persia.

  British influence in Persia increased in the late nineteenth century and competition between Britain and Russia for influence over Persia culminated in the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1907, which established separate British and Russian spheres of influence in Persia.

  During the First World War, our forces were in action in Persia once again. In the south of the country, one Wilhelm Wassmuss, also known as the German Lawrence (of Arabia), tried to rouse local tribes to strike at British interests. But the comparison to Lawrence is a little unfair to Lawrence, since Wasmuss was far less successful. He contributed significantly to Allied operations by losing his German Diplomatic Code Book, which allowed Admiral Hall to read German diplomatic communications for much of the war. In August 1915, we reoccupied Bushehr. Towards the end of the year, Sir Percy Sykes established the South Persia Rifles to protect our interests there, and by December 1916 it had brigades based at Shiraz, Kerman and Bandar-Abbas.

  Then in 1918, with Russia after the revolution out of the war against Turkey, British forces advanced into northern Persia and the Caucasus to counter Ottoman advances and Bolshevik influence. At the end of the war, we made sure we were guaranteed access to Persian oil and, for a while, troops under General William Edmund Ironside occupied Northern Persia.

  In the Second World War, we invaded again. In 1935, the then Iranian government had asked countries with which it had diplomatic relations to call it Iran instead of Persia, so this time we invaded Iran instead of Persia. Again oil was a vital consideration, as was the desire to transport supplies from the Persian Gulf through Iran to the Soviet Union. There were fears of increasing German influence over Iran and in 1941, in coordination with the Soviets, we invaded. In an echo of the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1907, the plan was for the Soviets to take control of northern Persia, while Britain would take control of the south.

  The invasion began on 25 August 1941, with Abadan, site of a major oil refinery, as a prime target. HMS Shoreham sank the Iranian ship Palang, while Indian troops from Basra crossed the Shatt al Arab and took the town. HMAS Kanimbla landed troops at Bandar-e-Shahpur to take the port and petrol terminal there. Indian troops from Basra then advanced towards Ahvaz, which Captain Rennie had taken in 1857. Meanwhile, further north, General William Slim led British and Indian troops across the Iraq/Iran border to capture the Naft-i-Shah oilfield and then pressed on towards Kermanshah. The Soviets advanced from the north. By the time hostilities ceased, assorted Iranian warships were sunk or badly damaged, their planes had been destroyed and hundreds of Iranian military personnel were dead. In September, British and Soviet forces occupied Tehran and Reza Shah was forced off the throne to be replaced by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Phalavi.

  So, over the centuries we have been very busy in Persia/Iran.

  Iraq

  Unless you have been out of contact with the news for a very long time, it won’t come as much of a surprise that we have invaded Iraq. What may come as a surprise, though, is quite how much time we’ve spent fighting there, even before our recent excursion.

  The East India Company took an early interest in the area for strategic reasons. In 1763, for instance, it set up shop in Basra and also set up a camel post from Aleppo to Baghdad – carrying post by camels, not posting camels. Then the company started supplying modern weapons to the authorities in Baghdad and teaching them how to use them. Sounds familiar? And by 1805, with worries about what Napoleon might be up to, if he was given half a chance, Brits were already thinking that maybe it would be useful to control Iraq. Well, after all, Napoleon did invade Egypt, partly with the aim of getting at India.

  Having said that, during the Persian War of 1856–57 we went to some lengths to avoid invading what is now Iraq, since, not unreasonably, we didn’t want to pick a quarrel with the Ottoman authorities there while also fighting the Persians at the same time. It would be a bit like fighting wars in both Iraq and Iran today. So when we wanted to attack the Persian defences, we sent boats into the Shatt al Arab, but went to some lengths to stay in the Persian bit. Just as when we were in Iraq recently, we had to try to stay in the Iraqi bit of the Shatt al Arab and keep out of the Iranian bit.

  But all that went out of the window with the First World War. On 5 November 1914, we declared war on the Ottomans, and by 25 November a British and Indian force had already captured Basra.

  In 1915 we pushed north towards Baghdad. By November of that year we were just short of Baghdad and confronted an Ottoman force at the Battle of Ctesiphon. Ctesiphon’s a hugely historical place, a sort of crossroads of history. In 363, the Roman Emperor Julian fought the Persians here and that was about as far as the Roman expedition got before turning back. In 1915, we did the same against the Ottomans before turning back.

  Unfortunately in terms of historical parallels, we then switched to the Stalingrad parallel, but we were about to end up playing the German role in Stalingrad, not the Russian one. Our retreating army made it as far as Kut al Amara and was then encircled. We subsequently tried to break through to the besieged forces, we tried to supply them by air, we even tried sending a paddle steamer to get through to them. All to no avail. In April 1916, our trapped forces surrendered and over 13,000 soldiers became prisoners. The surrender at Kut al Amara is not something a lot of Brits know about, but it was a huge disaster for us. So you see, we’ve had miserable times in Iraq before.

  After that we picked ourselves up, regrouped and retrained, making Basra into our base and our home in Iraq, just as we were to do during our recent time in the country. By December 1916, we were ready to march north. This time there were no mistakes like those of the previous venture north, and on 11 March 1917 we marched into Baghdad. There weren’t any statues of Saddam to pull down yet, but we did issue the proclamation of Baghdad, telling the locals ‘our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators’.

  We took it a bit easy on this front for most of 1918, but later that year, with signs of an armistice approaching, we lurched into action to ensure we grabbed as much as possible before the close of play.

  After the First World War ended, it was all a bit of a mess for us in the area. We were occupying three separate Ottoman provinces: Mosul in the north, Baghdad in the centre and Basra in the south. There were major cultural and ethnic differences in the make-up of the three provinces. But despite this, the decision was taken to string them together into one political entity – Iraq. In April 1920, we were given the League of Nations Mandate to control the territory. Subsequently, the locals decided that they didn’t entirely believe the bit about us coming as liberators instead of conquerors and by June 1920 we had an armed insurgency on our hands which mixed nationalists, religious elements and out-of-work ex-Ottoman army officers. Does any of this sound familiar?

  In 1920, in a world without television cameras and which had just come out of an appallingly brutal world war, we used air power and some very tough tactics against the rebels. The tactics did indeed help to bring the military side of the rebellion to an end, but they left a legacy that probably destroyed an
y chance of the Brits and the Iraqis getting along cheerfully.

  Anyway, in 1921 we set up the Kingdoms of Iraq, with a king, Faisal, whom the French had forced out of Syria. It was one of those situations where we had decided that we wanted to remain in control of some of the important aspects of Iraq, and we were going to keep British forces there, but we wanted the Iraqis to run the less important aspects and still get along peacefully with us. Not surprisingly this approach didn’t win us many lasting friends among Iraqis and by 1941 we were fighting another war in Iraq and invading it all over again.

  By 1939, after assorted political developments, the only forces we had left in Iraq were two RAF bases, one near Basra and one at Habbaniya, between Ramadi and Fallujah, both familiar names from recent events in Iraq. On 1 April 1941, with Germany at one of its strongest points during the Second World War, a nationalist coup d’état led by one Rashid Ali took power in Baghdad after the regent had taken refuge on HMS Cockchafer (yes, Cockchafer – named after an insect apparently, not anything else). The new regime looked to the Germans for support against the British.

  In response, we rushed in reinforcements to the Basra area and occupied key points in the city, and when the Habbaniya base was surrounded by Iraqi troops and guns, we went on the offensive, bombing them and other military targets further afield. In May, German planes started arriving in Mosul in northern Iraq by way of Vichy French Syria. The German planes were repainted as Iraqi and started attacking us. A British relief force invaded Iraq from Palestine and eventually reached Habbaniya, while additional reinforcements were also airlifted in. This set us up for the Battle of Fallujah. Oh yes, it’s not just the Americans who’ve had one of those, we’ve had one too. On 19 May, after bombing and shelling Iraqi positions in and around Fallujah, we took the city. An Iraqi counter-attack on 22 May was eventually repulsed after fighting in the streets, and British troops began to advance on Baghdad both from Basra and from Habbaniya. Rashid’s regime collapsed, with him fleeing first to Persia and eventually to Germany. We put a pro-British government in power.