EDIT: I wrote this while forget wrote his own.... Part of it is redundant
Missioncontrol,
I do not want to sound pedant, but the Wikipedia says
During British administration, Rutbah Wells, as it was then known, was a stopover for Imperial Airways on flights from Britain to India and the Gulf Region [1]. It was also a water stop on the overland drive from Baghdad to Damascus; travelers who stopped lodged in a fort [2][3].
16 kilometers South off Rutbah (Rutbah Wells, in 1934), the famous aircraft, a winner off the MacRobertson Air Race the "Uiver" a DC-2 type from the KLM, now knows as Air France-KLM, crashed here on its first flight after the MacRobertson Air Race in December 1934 on its way to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
So, Rutbah Wells should be in Ar Rutba or its vicinity.
There is a contemporary (1930) mention of Rutbah and a (the?) fort in
Untitled, although the picture of the fort does seem to be from a smaller one than in the aerial picture in #2. Anyhow, I'd put Rutbah Wells along the old road, and pretty close, if not in, Ar Rutba.
A cleaned-up GoogleTranslation from German:
Hans Helfritz this published this photo in 'Under the sun of the Orient "(Berlin 1931), page 111:" Rutbah, the fort in the desert. " At this point (p. 110-112) he reports: "Finally, in the evening at seven clock, as the storm set and the setting sun painted purple tones in the yellow uniform, but at the same moment the night in the desert sinks, we approach Rutbah, a fortress, which the English have just built in the middle between Damascus and Baghdad, in the middle of the desert. Slowly we descend into a small valley, here and there glow eerily on a couple of fire of the Bedouin, here the Englishmen can rest protected and quietly. The gate of the fort, which we passed is watched by Zouaves, armed up to their teeth. Here accumulate gradually all the cars, and one hour is our peace gone. Here are also armored cars prepared to accompany, particularly in uncertain times, the "convoy" to Baghdad. In the darkness of the night, interrupted only by individual lamps of cars, the tall and strong desert police, with their daggers and triple cartridge belts, look very strange. Some of they have come suddenly into an argument, one raging like an idiot, waving hands and feet around and has to be carried away handcuffed. Men explode at the slightest opportunity; it is a miracle that nobody is just stabbed with a dagger. We continue or journey at eight. Some cars had already left half an hour ago, others who arrived later, will remain in the fort. The driver sits at the wheel as indifferent as during the day. He drives the thousand-kilometer route from Damascus to Baghdad in two days and a night without closing his eyes. The drivers in the East are actually not bad at all. There are more bad mechanics who have their car break down after a year, and good to keep them going longer. ... Nothing can be seen any more of the other cars. Pale moonlight spreads over the dull area in which flashes up every now and then bleached bone or empty fuel tanks. It may be about two clock, when we notice a faint light ahead of us. Coming closer, we recognize one of our cars, which has been stuck here ... "
Sorry for the verbiage and thread drift; this is also a piece of history and nostalgia for me: I did the 900 km road trip from Amman to Baghdad in early 1980s, and THAT was in an air conditioned bus. Yet a long one.... Must have been pretty close to Ar Rutba at one point.
Best
Reg