Persia

Persia had its name changed to Iran in 1935, but continued to be known as Persia during the war years. In 1940 Persia's oil output was 8.4 million tons which was vital to the British war effort, and the country's strategic importance became increasingly evident during the course of the war. Worried by German advances in the Western Desert campaigns, and an anti-British revolt in Iraq, the Allies viewed the prospect of further Axis gains in the Persian Gulf oil basin with alarm, and following Germany's attack on the USSR on 22 June 1941 (see BARBAROSSA), they regarded Persia as an indispensable route for sending Lend-Lease supplies to the Eastern Front. Although the country was officially neutral, its ruler, Reza Shah Pahlavi, and Germany maintained friendly relations, and many German advisers and technicians were involved in different Persian industrial projects: the British estimate of the number of German nationals living in Persia in July 1941 was 2,000–3,000 including about 1,000 men. In 1940–1, Germany was Persia's biggest partner in foreign trade. German fifth columnists were also active with anti-Soviet propaganda. Reza Shah's negative response to a joint British and Soviet request, made on 21 August 1941, to expel all the German nationals prompted a co-ordinated invasion of the country by the Soviet and British forces on 25 August 1941 (see Map 84). These easily undermined scattered Persian resistance and subsequently Reza Shah abdicated in favour of his 22-year-old son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, left the country, and died in exile in Johannesburg in July 1944. Shortly after Reza Shah's abdication Persia severed diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy and expelled their nationals, and the severing of relations with Japan followed on 12 April 1942. The Allies initially guaranteed Persia's territorial integrity and independence. A Tri-Partite Treaty of Alliance between Persia, the UK, and the USSR, signed in Teheran on 29 January 1942, committed the Allies to leave Persia within six months after the end of the war with Germany and its associates. This was later extended to six months after the end of hostilities with Japan. Following the US entry into the war, these earlier agreements were reaffirmed in the Teheran conference of November 1943 (see Eureka). The Allies had initially maintained that they would not interfere with Persia's internal affairs. In practice, however, some intervention was inevitable. logistics required the use of Persian facilities such as ports, roads, railways, and telecommunications, as well as food supplies and manpower. In sending essential aid to the USSR, the trans-Iranian railway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea played an important role. During the war some 4,159,117 tons of Lend-Lease supplies, or 23.8% of the total aid delivered to the USSR, was shipped through the Persian Gulf. This aid was decisive in further consolidation of the Soviet defences, to such an extent that Persia has at times been referred to as ‘the bridge of victory’. See alsoPaiforce.

Ali Gheissari

Bibliography

Lenczowski, G. , Russia and the West in Iran, 1918–1948: A Study in Big-Power Rivalry (New York, 1949).
Millspaugh, A. C. , Americans in Persia (Washington, DC, 1946).
Skrine, C. , World War in Iran (London, 1962).
Stewart, R. , Sunrise at Abadan: The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941 (New York, 1988).