RAF BASRAH & RAF SHAIBAH

Basrah lies at the head of the Persian Gulf and is the main port for Iraq. The RAF
Units in Basrah provided support and supply facilities for the RAF & British units in
Iraq. RAF Basrah also accommodated seaplane & flying boats. RAF Makinah
contained further support facilities and a small hospital.

RAF Shaibah lay in the desert 13 miles away from Basrah and was renowned for the
harshness of climate and primitive, isolated facilities.

Unfortunately none of these Units was granted a Unit Crest.

More details of these RAF Units will be given as this pages is developed.

MAP OF BASRAH - 1941

This map was issued to British Forces in May
1941 and one of the members of the RAF
Habbaniya Association has kindly donated his
carefully preserved copy to the Association. It is
in the form of a blue-print and not very legible. It
has been scanned and enhanced into black on
white. A further improvement planned is to
colour the Shatt-al-Arab and creeks in blue to
make the geography more obvious. Meanwhile
please accept what you see on screen as being
the clearest image possible from the original.

The map has now been further enhanced. It is
foolscap so has been scanned in two halves,
cleaned up and enhanced. It has replaced the
original copy on this website.

Home Page

If these links do not all work
properly then try this site for
locating them and for finding
other maps of Iraq.

Click on this to go to

a 1942 map of the Basrah

& Shaibah area which

shows much details

of the terrain & features.

Click on this to go to

a 1980 map of the Basrah

& Shaibah area. See how

the marshes have shrunk.

Click on this to go to a 1991

map of the Shaibah & Basrah

area. It seems incredible that

there are so many structures

and hazards to flying in an

area that was mainly barren

desert when the RAF were at

Shaibah.

Click on this plan of RAF
Shaibah to see a full page
version which you can
download.

Click on this map to go to a
clear version that you can print
out on a full page.