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There were rumours of Italian submarines cast of Suez, rumours that were repeated
several times in the next three years. Once after all the defence had been mobilised it was
found that what had been spotted was a school of whales. Naval authorities asked anxiously if
it were possible that the enemy had established secret fuel depots in the Gulf but local British
representatives were convinced that this could not have been done undetected. However,
there certainly were some activities for in September 1940 the PA reported that in conditions
of extreme secrecy, the captured crew of a sunken Italian submarine had spent some days in
Bahrain before being sent on to a prison camp in India.

The following month Bahrain had its most direct experience of the war. On the night of
19/20 October, in an astonishing feat of airmanship, involving a flight of 2800 miles, Italian
aircraft from the Dodecanese Islands attacked the Refinery at Awali, and also Dhahran.
Eighty four small bombs were dropped, but no one was hurt and no damage done. The
possibility that the Refinery might be a target for hostile activity had been anticipated but the
fear was of sabotage, so at night it was brilliantly lit to deter intruders and thus was an ideal
target for bombers. At first the suspicious-minded thought that the attack might have been
staged by the British to create anti-Axis feeling but doubts were dispelled by Rome Radio
which boasted that its forces had completely destroyed the Refiner}'“repeatedly hit, fires were
started which could be seen for miles”. The British did however turn the incident to their
advantage by pointing out that the attack had occurred in Ramadan and that in flying on to
Eritrea, the Italians must have violated the airspace of Mecca. American oil companies with a
stake in BAPCO issued a protest. The most immediate result was the expulsion of an Italian
priest amidst demonstrations of hostility.

In the same month the veteran intriguer, Franz von Papen, then Hitler’s Ambassador in
Ankara received an emissary of the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem and subsequently wrote to
Berlin that in his opinion Germany should endeavour to dominate Iraq and the Gulf so that in
the future, after its Italian ally had gained control of the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, it
would have an independent way of reaching the colonies that it proposed to acquire in East
Africa. These views did not find favour with his master and instead when Molotov, the Russian
Foreign Minister.visisted Berlin, Hitler, hoping to embroil the Soviet Union with the British,
suggested that it should expand southwards towards the Indian Ocean.

In April 1941 Rashid Ali al-Gaylani became Prime Minister of Iraq and as his policies
became more evidently anti-British, a clash appeared to be almost certain. The blackout in
Bahrain was strictly enforced, Shaykh Khalifah contemplated arresting all resident Iraqis,
estimated at about 550 in the oil camp,and in the general excitement the Indian anti-aircraft
gunners there fired on the RAF. Belgrave put an article about air raid precautions in
al-Bahrain and many people prepared to move out of the main towns into the countryside
while some of the Persians thought of leaving altogether. Trenches were dug along the edge of
the town opposite the fort and a practice alert was held, causing panic in Dhahran which had
not been warned that it was only an exercise.

Hardly had the Rashid Ali regime been overthrown when Hitler’s invasion of Russia
made the Soviet Union into Britain’s ally. The two powers considered it necessary to establish
an overland means of communication and to do this decided to overthrow the government of
Reza Shah which they regarded as pro-Nazi. As a preliminary, at the beginning of July 1941
the Bahrain Government carried out a round-up ofsome 150 Persians in the Islands, checking
their documents and expelling undesirables. Some British troops arrived and plans were
discussed for improving the air defences. When the following month the allies invaded Persia,
they did so with the best wishes of most Bahrainis, the upper classes glad that the war was

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