Operation Mammoth ("Unternehmen Mammut"), was a German special forces mission in 1943 by the Wehrmacht, during World War II, for a team of two German Army officers, led by Gottfried Müller and accompanied by a Kurdish activist Ramzi Nafi Agha, to start a rebellion of the Iraqi Kurds in an attempt to expel the British from the region, gain control of the oil fields, and in some way deliver them to the Wehrmacht because Operation Barbarossa was not progressing as it was expected in reaching the Caucasus. In return for ejecting the British, the Kurds would supposedly be assisted in creating an independent Kurdistan.

The mission failed. Ramzi and the German operatives were taken prisoners by British and Iraqi forces, tortured and sentenced to death. Müller managed to escape and return to Germany where he later founded Salem International. Ramzi had his sentence reduced to life, however he became mentally disturbed in prison and consequently was released in 1947. He died two years later in 1949 in his hometown Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Timeline

The full timeline from 1942-1943:

In popular culture

The Kurdish Neo-Nazi organization Hawpa, is heavily inspired by Ramzi Nafi, it has adopted 1943 as its founding date, the year that coincides with Operation Mammoth. Their flag has a white Kurdish Sun on a black background with a swastika inside it.

Literature

• Werner Brockdorff: Geheimkommandos des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Wels 1967, .

• Ulrich van der Heyden, Bernd Lemke, Pherset Rosbeiani: Unternehmen Mammut: Ein Kommandoeinsatz der Wehrmacht in Nordirak 1943. Edition Falkenberg, .

• Operation Mammut, A Wehrmacht commando operation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq 1943, archive.org

• Dissertation of the topic (available as PDF)

• „Die Brandenburger“ Kommandotruppe und Frontverband. Bundesarchiv

See also

• Kurds in World War II

• Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II

References

Sources

• Bernd Lemke / Pherset Rosbeiani (ed.), Operation Mammut, A Wehrmacht commando operation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in 1943 (2026), archive.org.

• Müller, Gottfried Johannes, In the Burning Orient, 3rd ed., Salem-Buchdienst GmbH, Stadtsteinach, 2007.