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My website is the only place you will find individual headstone photos of each of the 290 burials at the Habbaniya War Cemetery in Iraq. For this reason I am posting photos in this News/Blog section of each of the plots. This is a wide-angle view of Plot 5 as well as a diagram of the cemetery which shows the location of each Plot. The view is from the north-east corner of Plot 5 looking towards the south-west corner. For more information and to view individual grave photographs, refer to the Habbaniya  section on this website. Plot 5 at the RAF Habbaniya War Cemetery, Iraq. The headstone in the immediate foreground is 5. G. 10 marking the grave of Corporal C E Goodsell of the Royal Air Force Plan of the RAF Habbaniya War Cemetery, Iraq

My website is the only place you will find individual headstone photos of each of the 290 burials at the Habbaniya War Cemetery in Iraq. For this reason I am posting photos in this News/Blog section of each of the plots. This is a wide-angle view of Plot 3 as well as a diagram of the cemetery which shows the location of each Plot. The view is from the north-east corner of Plot 3 looking towards the south-west corner. For more information and to view individual grave photographs, refer to the Habbaniya  section on this website. Plot 3 at RAF Habbaniya War Cemetery, Iraq, the nearest grave G.8 being for a British civilian J Ingram who died on 29th March 1952 aged 79 Plan of RAF Habbaniya War Cemetery, Iraq

My website is the only place you will find individual headstone photos of each of the 290 burials at the Habbaniya War Cemetery in Iraq. For this reason I am posting photos in this News/Blog section of each of the plots. This is a wide-angle view of Plot 2 as well as a diagram of the cemetery which shows the location of each Plot. The view is from the north-east corner of Plot 2 looking towards the south-west corner. For more information and to view individual grave photographs, refer to the Habbaniya  section on this website. Plot 2 of Habbaniya War Cemetery, Iraq, grave G.10 in the immediate foreground (Corporal E F Green, Royal Signals) Plan of the Habbaniya WAr Cemetery, Iraq or more information, refer to the Habbaniya  section on this website.

Most people do not know that my website is the only place you will find individual headstone photos of each of the 290 burials at the Habbaniya War Cemetery in Iraq. For this reason I am posting photos in this News/Blog section of each of the plots, starting with this wide-angle view of Plot 1 as well as a diagram of the cemetery which shows the location of each Plot. The view is from the north-east corner of Plot 2 looking towards the south-west corner. For more information and to view individual grave photographs, refer to the Habbaniya section on this website. View of Plot 1 at Habbaniya War Cemetery, Iraq, taken from the north-east corner looking towards the south-west. The grave nearest the camera is G.10 where AC2 M Lynch of the Royal Air Force is buried Plan of the Habbaniya War Cemetery, Iraq, showing the locations of each of the six Plots

From the fragments of three headstones held in the Diyala Museum museum in eastern Iraq, all that remains of the 545 WW2 burials at the Polish War Cemetery at Khanaqin in the Diyala region of Iraq, I have been able to identify the fallen. Two of the dead served with the Polish Army and one with the Indian Army. The men are Corporal Z Piechocki of 5. Baon. Sap, Rifleman J Lastowski of 5. Baon C. K. M. and Signalman Muhammad Juma of the Indian Signal Corps. In total, 400 Polish men, 102 Indian men and 3 Arabs were buried at Khanaqin. For more information, look at the Khanaqin section on this website. Remaining headstones at the Khanaqin Polish War Cemetery, Diyala, Iraq

In looking at my research notes for my book "Leaning on a Lamppost" I came across an extended map of Basingstoke dated 1894, contained in four images. I have stitched the photos together so that the old waterway is clearly visible, at one time the life blood of the Basingstoke industry, with Basingstoke Wharf at its centre. For more information and images, click on these links https://www.stevebusterjohnson.com/basingstoke-map-1910 and https://www.stevebusterjohnson.com/story-leaning-on-a-lamp-post . "Leaning on a Lamppost" contains a large chapter featuring Basingstoke as it was in 1910 - a very different town compared to today. Map of Basingstoke 1894

Hangar at Shaibah 2004 Though it is common knowledge that 6 Squadron was based in Iraq for many years (RAF Hinaidi and RAF Habbaniya especially), not many people are aware that on two occasions between February 1953 and September 1955 a detachment of 6 Squadron Vampires was based at RAF Shaibah, thirteen miles SW of Basra. I became aware of the photograph in this post recently though I have been unable to determine its copyright status. The photograph was taken in 1953 or 1954 and features five 6 Squadron Vampire FB-9s sitting on the tarmac in front of the main hangar at RAF Shaibah. The location is definitely RAF Shaibah by the second photograph reproduced here with the kind permission of Wing Commander (Retd) Clive Montellier who took a photograph from the same viewpoint at Shaibah in 2004. Five 6 Squadron Vampire FB 9s at RAF Shaibah, Iraq Map of Shaibah in relation to Basra, Iraq

Thanks to Pauline Collins (the grand-daughter of Corporal Mark Osborne of 70 Squadron who died in Iraq and was buried at the Ma'Asker Cemetery in Plot 2 Row A Grave 2) who sent me several photographs of her grandfather's burial, I have been able to add service details for three Royal Air Force men who were buried at Ma'Asker close to the grave of Corporal Osborne, simply by reading the inscription on their headstones (see attached photos). This means that 55 Squadron and 70 Squadron deaths have both increased by 1 (LAC Reginald Lloyd and Cpl Mark Osborne respectively) and the count for 'Aircraft Depot Iraq' deaths has also increased by 1 (AC1 Stanley Pain). To see all of the photos of Corporal Mark Osborne's burial, visit the OLD BURIAL PHOTOS page of this website or carry out a search on the word 'Osborne'. RAF headstones in Plot 2 Row A at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad Breakdown by Service Type and History of the 300 graves at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad RAF headstones in Plot 2 Row A at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad

Ever since I have been researching men and women who have died in Iraq and buried at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery 'between the wars', I have constantly been presented with anomalies in the way in which individual grave sites have been allocated, made all the more perplexing since the only dates that have survived the passage of time have been the 'Date of Death', often very different to the 'Date of Burial'. I have now carried out and extensive study of the 300 burials and the apparent methodology behind the allocation of grave sites and have included a summary of my findings right HERE on my website. I have attached to this post a 1935 photograph of the cemetery that shows how the grave sequencing has been made all the more confusing as the flow of grave numbers has changed over the years from North-South to South-North.

HM Troopship Dorsetshire was used to transport British Forces between Southampton and Iraq during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. These photos show servicemen boarding at Southampton, bound for RAF Hinaidi, Baghdad. See also the story of 70 LXX Squadron on this website. HM Troopship Dorsetshire - boarding at Southampton September 1927 HM Troopship Dorsetshire

The BE2d Serial 6241 of 2nd Lt A Appleton (pilot) and Cpl A J Cooper (observer) was shot down in flames on the 17th March 1917 during combat with five German aircraft over Polygon Wood. Both men were killed in the crash. This photograph was kindly supplied by Trevor Henshaw. Members of the German Army inspecting the crash of 6 Squadron's BE2d Serial 6241 near Polygon Wood

I received a query regarding the age of the Memorial at the Habbaniya War Cemetery in Iraq, erected in honour of the 106 men of the RAF Iraq Levies who died whilst fighting in Iraq during WW2 (though seventeen of the names on the memorial were for deaths post WW2 up until December 1947) . To my knowledge the memorial was constructed a few years after the end of WW2 but I'm not sure as to the exact date. I have attached a photo of the Habbaniya Cemetery taken during the late 'fifties before the Royal Air Force closed the base in May 1959. After the complete restoration by the CWGC of the cemetery at Habbaniya in 2018/19, the cemetery became overgrown again, but with the help of the British and Australian Embassies in Baghdad, a gardening/caretaker contract has been set in place, funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The photos I have put on my site (link copied below) were taken last year and you can see that the cemetery is in good condition again.   See also https://www.stevebusterjohnson.com/habbaniya-cemetery-restoration/raf-levies-memorial-names