Persian Corridor
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The Persian Corridor is the name for a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II.
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[edit] Background
Note: The nation of Iran has been referred to as "Persia" in the West since the time of the Persian Wars. The earliest Iranian peoples known to recorded history are the Parsua mentioned in an Akkadian text. For hundreds of years, Persia was the proper English term for Iran, and the name stuck in the minds of many foreigners long after Reza Shah Pahlavi asked, in 1935, that his country be referred to by its native name. English-language official documents from the Persian Corridor period continue to make the word "Persia" completely interchangeable with name of the nation-state of "Iran."
[edit] Overthrow of the Shah
- See main article Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
Following Germany's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became allies. Both turned their attention to Iran. Britain and the USSR saw the newly opened Trans-Iranian Railway as an attractive route to transport supplies from the Persian Gulf to the Soviet region. Britain and the USSR used concessions extracted in previous interventions to pressure Iran (and, in Britain's case, Iraq) into allowing the use of their territory for military and logistical purposes. Increased tensions with Britain especially led to pro-German rallies in Tehran. In August 1941, because Reza Shah refused to expel German nationals and come down clearly on their side, Britain and the USSR invaded Iran, arrested the monarch and sent him into exile to South Africa, taking control of Iran's communications and coveted railroad.
In 1942 the United States, by now an ally of Britain and the USSR in the war, sent a military force to Iran to help maintain and operate sections of the railroad. The British and Soviet authorities allowed Reza Shah's system of government to collapse and limited the constitutional government interfaces. They permitted Reza Shah's son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to succeed to the throne.
The new Shah soon signed an agreement pledging full non-military logistical cooperation with the British and Soviets, in exchange for full recognition of his country's independence and a promise to withdraw within six months of the war's conclusion. In September 1943, the Shah went further and declared war on Germany, and signed the Declaration by the United Nations entitling his country to a spot in the original United Nations. Two months later, he played host to the Tehran Conference.
The presence of so many foreign troops accelerated social change and roused nationalist sentiment in the country. In 1946, Hossein Gol-e-Golab published the nationalist song Ey Iran; it was reportedly inspired by an incident during the war in which Golab witnessed an American GI beating up a native Iranian greengrocer in a marketplace dispute.
[edit] Anders' army
Meanwhile Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, under pressure from the British and the Polish Government-in-Exile, began releasing some surviving Polish prisoners of war captured in 1939 and Polish citizens subsequently deported by the occupying Soviets to Soviet republics, with the aim of forming a Polish army to fight on the Allied side. General Władysław Anders was released from Lubyanka Prison and began assembling his troops; however, continued friction with the Soviets and their refusal to adequately supply the Polish troops with equipment and food, as well as the Soviets' insistence on dispersing the not yet combat-ready Polish units along the front, led to the eventual evacuation of Anders' troops, along with a sizable contingent of Polish civilians, to Iran. The Polish 2nd Corps went on to serve in other theaters of war, but some civilians settled permanently in Iran. Some Polish refugees who continue living in Iran today were featured in the 2002 independent film, A Forgotten Odyssey. More information is also available through the Kresy-Siberia Group.
[edit] Supply efforts
The Allies delivered all manner of materiel to the Soviets, from Studebaker US6 trucks to B-24 bombers. Most supplies in the corridor arrived by ship at Persian Gulf ports and were carried north by rail or in truck convoys. Some goods were reloaded onto ships to cross the Caspian Sea, others continued in trucks.
United States forces in the corridor originally under the Iran-Iraq Service Command, later renamed the Persian Gulf Service Command (PGSC); this was the successor to the original United States Military Iranian Mission, which had been put in place to deliver Lend-Lease supplies before the United States had entered the conflict. The mission was originally commanded by Col. Don G. Shingler, who was replaced late in 1942 by Brig. Gen. Donald H. Connolly. Both Iran-Iraq Service Command and PGSC were subordinate to U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East (USAFIME). PGSC was finally renamed simply Persian Gulf Command.
[edit] Statistics
The Allied supply efforts were enormous. The Americans alone delivered 175.5 million long tons (178.3 million metric tonnes) to the Soviets during the war, via numerous routes, including arctic convoys to the ports of Murmansk and Vladivostok. The Persian Corridor was the route for 4,159,117 long tons (4,225,858 metric tonnes) of these; however, this was not the only American contribution, not to mention those of all the other allies like Britain, British India, South Africa, Bahrain and numerous other independent nations and colonies and protectorates of Allied nations. All told, about 7,900,000 long tons (8,000,000 metric tonnes) of shipborne cargo from Allied sources were unloaded in the Corridor, most of it bound for Russia, but some of it for British forces under Middle East Command or for the Iranian economy, which was sustaining the influx of tens of thousands of foreign troops and Polish refugees and the development of new transportation and logistics facilities. The figure does not include transfers of aircraft nor cargo delivered by air, which amounted to several millions of tons more[citation needed].
[edit] Supply routes
Supplies came from as far away as India and were unloaded in Persian Gulf ports in Iran and Iraq.
The main ports in the Corridor for supplies inbound to Iran were: in Iran,
- Bushehr
- Bandar Shahpur (now Bandar Imam Khomeini); and
in Iraq,
The main overland routes were from the ports to Tehran, and then
or, alternatively,
The main port for outbound supplies (via the Caspian Sea) was Nowshahr. Ships ferried supplies from this port to Baku or Makhachkala.
[edit] Other Locations
Important smaller ports and transit points on the routes included:
[edit] in Azerbaijan
[edit] in Armenia
[edit] in Georgia
[edit] in North Ossetia-Alania
[edit] in Iran
Ports
- Bandar Anzali
- Bandar Abbas
- Chabahar
- Noshahr
- Bandar-e Shah (now Bandar Torkoman)
- Amir Abad port
- Khoramshahr
- Bushehr
- Assalouyeh
- Mahshahr
- BIK port
- Fereydunkenar [1]
Cities
[edit] in Turkmenistan
Ports
- Turkmenbashi (Krasnovodsk)
Cities
- Ashgabat
- Kizyl Arvat
- Kizyl Atrek.
[edit] Personnel
Cargo principally handled by special British and American transportation units from the nations' respective combat service support branches, such as the Royal Army Service Corps and the Quartermaster Corps. Many Allied civilian workers like stevedores and railroad engineers were also employed on the corridor. Many skilled engineers, accountants and other professionals who volunteered or were drafted into the armed services were made warrant officers who helped oversee the complex supply operations.
In addition to providing logistical support to the Iranians, the Allies offered other services as well. The Americans in particular, viewed as more neutral since they had no colonial past in the country as did the British and Russians, contributed special expertise to the young shah's government. Col. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr, who at the outbreak of the war was serving as superintendent of the New Jersey State Police was in August, 1942 put in charge of training the Imperial Iranian Gendarmerie, eventually earning a promotion to general. His son, Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr would make his own mark on the Middle East almost fifty years later during the Gulf War
[edit] See also
- History of Iran
- Middle East Campaign
- Military history of the Soviet Union
- Polish contribution to World War II
- Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
- Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1907
- Royal Road
- Trans-Iranian Railway
- Persian Gulf Command
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[edit] External links
- Coakley, Robert W. [1960] (2000). "Chapter 9: The Persian Corridor as a Route for Aid to the USSR", in Greenfield, Kent Roberts: Command Decisions, CMH Online bookshelves. Washington: US Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 72-7.
- Motter, T.H. Vail [1952] (2000). The Persian Corridor and Aid To Russia, CMH Online bookshelves. Washington: US Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 8-1.
- Trucks Lend Leased to Russia amateur history page with detailed maps and statistics
- The North-South Iranian Corridor today
- Parstimes.com - Persian Gulf Command Photodiary of an officer who served at Bandar Shapur in the Persian Corridor
- A Forgotten Odyssey website
