Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

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Date	August 25, 1941 - September 17, 1941
Location	Iran
Result	Allied victory

Combatants

United Kingdom
Indian Empire
Soviet Union

Iran

Commanders

Lieutenant General Edward Quinan

Reza Shah

Strength

3 armies, 2 divisions, 3 brigades

9 divisions

Casualties

22 KIA, 42 WIA

Two warships sunk, four damaged, six fighters lost

The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran was the invasion of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Countenance, from August 25 to September 17 of 1941. The purpose of the invasion was to secure British oilfields and ensure supply lines (see Persian Corridor) for the Soviets fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front.

1 Background
2 Invasion
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Background

Following Germany's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became allies. Although a neutral nation, Reza Shah had brought Iran closer to Germany. This concerned the British who feared that the Abadan Oil Refinery, owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, might fall into Nazi hands — the refinery produced eight million tons of oil in 1940 and was thus a crucial part of the Allied war effort. For the Soviets, Iran was a country of extreme strategic importance. The German Wehrmacht was steadily advancing through the Soviet Union and there were few ways for the Allies to get desperately needed American Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviets. With heavy ice floes and the coastal ice cap fast rendering convoys to Arkhangelsk impossible, the Trans-Iranian Railway seemed a very attractive route to transport supplies up from the Persian Gulf. The two Allied nations applied pressure on Iran and the Shah but this led only to increased tensions and pro-German rallies in the capital of Tehran. Reza Shah refused to expel the many German nationals residing in Iran, and denied the use of the railway to the Allies; this, along with the above strategic concerns, prompted Britain and the Soviet Union to launch an invasion of Iran on August 25, 1941.

Shah Reza Pahlavi

[edit] Invasion

The invasion was rapid and conducted with ease. From the south the British Iraq Command (known as Iraqforce), renamed six days later to Iran and Iraq Command (Paiforce), under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Pellew Quinan, advanced. Paiforce was made up of the 8th and 10th Indian Infantry Divisions, 2nd Indian Armoured Brigade, 9th Armoured Brigade and the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade. The Soviets came from the north with their 44th, 47th and 53rd Armies. Air force and naval units also participated in the battle. The Persian Army mobilised nine infantry divisions. Reza Shah appealed to American President Franklin Roosevelt under the Atlantic Charter:

"…on the basis of the declarations which Your Excellency has made several times regarding the necessity of defending principles of international justice and the right of peoples to liberty. I beg Your Excellency to take efficacious and urgent humanitarian steps to put an end to these acts of aggression. This incident brings into war a neutral and pacific country which has had no other care than the safeguarding of tranquillity and the reform of the country." — a letter of August 25

However, this plea failed to prompt a response from the American President to save the Shah's nation, as Roosevelt's response shows:

"Viewing the question in its entirety involves not only the vital questions to which Your Imperial Majesty refers, but other basic considerations arising from Hitler's ambition of world conquest. It is certain that movements of conquest by Germany will continue and will extend beyond Europe to Asia, Africa, and even to the Americas, unless they are stopped by military force. It is equally certain that those countries which desire to maintain their independence must engage in a great common effort if they are not to be engulfed one by one as has already happened to a large number of countries in Europe. In recognition of these truths, the Government and people of the United States of America, as is well known, are not only building up the defenses of this country with all possible speed, but they have also entered upon a very extensive program of material assistance to those countries which are actively engaged in resisting German ambition for world domination."

Roosevelt also reassured the Shah by noting "the statements to the Iranian Government by the British and Soviet Governments that they have no designs on the independence or territorial integrity of Iran". However, the Soviets would later back separatist states in the north, while the U.S. and UK would later support the overthrow of the popular and democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh during the Abadan Crisis in 1953.

The campaign began with a dawn attack by the British warship HMS Shoreham on the harbour at Abadan. The Iranian sloop Palang was quickly sunk, and remaining ships were destroyed or captured. Resistance had not had time to prepare and the oil installations at Abadan and Bandar-e-Shahpur were occupied. The Royal Air Force attacked airbases and communications. British and Indian troops invaded Iran from their bases in neighbouring Iraq and advanced towards Qasr Shiekh.

The Soviet Transcaucasian Front invaded from the north and advanced toward Maku, which had been softened up by bombing raids. There were also Soviet landings at Bandar-i-Pahlavi, on the Caspian coast. In one incident, Soviet ships suffered from "friendly fire".

In naval actions, 2 Iranian warships were sunk and 4 crippled by the Royal Navy. Six Persian fighters were shot down. British and Indian casualties were 22 killed and 42 wounded.

Without anyone to step in and save Iran, Iranian resistance was rapidly overwhelmed and neutralised by Soviet and British tanks and infantry. The British and Soviet forces met in Tehran on September 17 and Iran was defeated, the oilfields safeguarded and the valuable Trans-Iranian Railway was in Allied hands. Reza Shah was arrested and sent into exile in South Africa, leaving his son Mohammad Shah to replace him on the throne. Iran was effectively divided between Britain and the Soviet Union for the duration of the war.

[edit] Aftermath

With this crucial supply route now open to the Soviet Union the Persian Corridor was opened and would provide a massive flow of supplies (over 5 million tons of war matériel) to the Soviets primarily, but also the British in the Middle East. The new Shah signed the Tri-Partite Treaty of Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union in January of 1942, under which Iran provided nonmilitary assistance to the Allied war effort. Article Five of this treaty, although not entirely trusted by the Iranian leader, committed the Allies to leaving Iran "not more than six months after the cessation of hostilities". In September 1943, Iran declared war on Germany, thus qualifying for membership in the United Nations. At the Tehran Conference in November of that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Josef Stalin reaffirmed their commitment to Iran's independence and territorial integrity and displayed a willingness to extend economic assistance to Iran.

At the war's end Britain withdrew but Soviet troops stationed in northwestern Iran not only refused to withdraw but backed revolts that established short-lived, pro-Soviet separatist regimes in the northern provinces of Iran: Azerbaijan Province and Kurdistan Province, the People's Republic of Azerbaijan and the Kurdish People's Republic in late 1945, both effective Soviet puppet states. Soviet troops did not withdraw from Iran proper until May, 1946 after receiving a promise of oil concessions. The Soviet republics in the north were soon overthrown and the oil concessions were revoked.