TALE OF A CITY 148 It is a shame upon us To let invincible glory disappear into oblivion. Rise, O, Glorious Arabs, And sacrifice your souls for the sake of this flag. This flag that students saluted every morning in the school was the English flag of humiliation. After spending several weeks in Bahrain, Sheikh Muhammad was allowed to return to Sharjah as a result of persistent insistence from the Sheikh of Bahrain. InMarch 1949, Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr al-Qasimi fell ill. By earlyMay, he left for treatment in India, and left his brother to run the affairs of Sharjah. This drove Mr Pelly to fury as he had not exacted his revenge on Sheikh Muhammad bin Saqr. As a result, he decided to strike fear into the hearts of the Sharjah people, especially, Sheikh Muhammad. To do so, he agreed with Sir Robert Hay, Political Agent in Bahrain, to request from the R.A.F in Iraq to fly over Sharjah and the other emirates coastline while dropping live rockets with war heads and firing cannons in the presence of the Sheikhs of the emirates who would be invited for this event. The response from Iraq to this request came in a letter dated 28 May 1949. It stated: “[I] Suggest some time week commencing June 6th or week commencing June 13th. Latter preferable to us. Will send FOUR BRIGANDS which are Twin Engined Bombers to Sharjah andundertake two formationflights over area.Will also have to positionDAKOTA at Sharjah with maintenance personnel. BRIGANDS will also be based Sharjah. I prefer we fix this affair between ourselves without reference to higher authority. Would suggest also that in Two or ThreeMONTHS time we issue an invitation in to all Sheikhs including petty ones to demonstration in Sharjah district of dropping live 1000 pounder ROCKETS with war heads and cannon firing. The bangs and the dust might well impress them.” 1 On 13 June 1949, four BRIGANDS left Habbaniyyah in Iraq and landed in Sharjah, where they were joined by a DAKOTA carrying ground personnel and equipment. The whole team, including the flight crew and pilots 1 I.O.R./R/15/2/293, p.2.
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