Fritz Konrad Ferdinand Grobba (18 July 1886 – 2 September 1973) was a German diplomat during the interwar period and World War II.
During World War I, Leutnant Grobba fought for the Central Powers, as an officer of the Prussian Army.
In September 1922, Grobba joined the legal affairs department of the German Foreign Ministry of the Weimar Republic.
By the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party were in full control over Germany.
Grobba also convinced Ghazi to allow Germany to send 50 German officers to Iraq for war games.
They would represent real power, as successive Iraqi governments sought the support of the military for survival.
However, contrary to Article 4 of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, Prime Minister Nuri Said chose not to have Iraq declare war on Germany despite Article 4: "Should ... either of the High Contracting Parties become engaged in war, the other High Contracting Party will ... immediately come to his aid in the capacity of an ally."
On 3 February 1941, after much tension and calls for his removal, he was replaced as prime minister by Taha al-Hashimi, a candidate acceptable to Ali and the members of the "Golden Square".
On 1 April 1941, Rashid Ali and members of the "Golden Square" led a coup d'état in Iraq.
On 3 May, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop persuaded Hitler that Fritz Grobba be secretly returned to Iraq to head up a diplomatic mission to channel support to the Rashid Ali regime.
The military mission had the cover name "Special Staff F" (Sonderstab F) and it included Brandenburgers and a Luftwaffe component.
[10] On 6 May, Luftwaffe Colonel Werner Junck received instructions in Berlin that he was to take a small force of aircraft to Iraq.
The aircraft of Fliegerführer Irak were to have Iraqi markings and they were to operate out of an air base in Mosul, some 240 miles north of Baghdad.
[9] Also on 6 May, Grobba and his mission flew from Foggia to Rhodes in two Heinkel He 111 bombers which were dubbed the "Führer Courier Squadron".
The second priority was for Iraqi ground forces to take Habbaniyah with air support provided by Fliegerführer Irak.
[16] Late on 29 May, Rashid Ali, several of his key supporters, and the German military mission fled, under cover of darkness.
A British flying column commanded by Major R. E. S. Gooch and nicknamed Gocol was created to pursue and capture Grobba.
The column then drove west and illegally entered French territory, just prior to the commencement of the Syria-Lebanon Campaign.
In his 1957 memoirs, Men and Power in the Orient, Grobba summarized as "wasted opportunities" the Middle East policy of Germany during the 1930s.
[citation needed] Grobba also claimed that Hitler also expressed a disinclination to totally eliminate all of the power of the British.