Relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union were pretty frosty
during the Second World War. Although they were meant to be friends,
the two nations shot at each other on numerous occasions. But somehow,
for a week in August 1941, they managed to bury the hatchet long enough to invade Iran
side-by-side. This is the story of that invasion and Iran’s desperate fight for freedom.
First up, we need a little background.
Iran emerged from the ultra-conservative Qajar dynasty in 1925 and was pulled together under
the rule of Reza Shah. Reza borrowed heavily from western banks and used the money to fund a grand
modernisation program. He built new schools, hospitals, roads, railways, and modern
infrastructure. He also pursued industrialization, which hadn’t yet spread through the whole country.
His dependence on foreign loans to make his big dreams come true
forced Tehran to adopt a policy of strict neutrality
towards all European powers. In less than two decades, this came back to bite him.
In 1931, Reza cancelled the D’Arcy Concession. This deal, made 30 years
earlier by the old regime, gave the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company exclusive rights to drill for oil
inside Iran’s borders. In return, Iran got 16% of the profits from its own national
resources. The deal had been closed only after the British paid huge bribes to the government,
so there wasn’t anything in it for the new Shah. It was a terrible deal anyway, so he renegotiated
it with terms that gave Iran its fair share of the oil profits. The Iranian government was happy,
but the incident convinced the British that Reza Shah was hostile to their oil interests.
If there’s one thing that countries are scared of, it’s a threat to their oil supply.
1940 was a crucial year for Britain. The Battle of Britain raged for months in the skies of England,
British tanks went head-to-head with Rommel in North Africa, and the Royal Navy fought the
Italians for control of the Mediterranean. Planes, tanks, and ships all needed vast quantities of oil
to keep running, and much of that oil came from Iran. The Abadan Refinery produced
eight million tons of oil in 1940, all of it destined to power British war machines.
Losing the Abadan Refinery would be catastrophic, and yet the Shah maintained Iran’s neutrality.
The British refused to accept this and accused Reza of supporting the
Nazis. Iran reaffirmed its neutrality, but the writing was on the wall for invasion.
Hitler’s forces rolled into the Soviet Union on June 22nd 1941. They quickly
captured their objectives and pushed deep into the USSR, threatening the Caucasus.
Cyrus Sulzburger, an international journalist, summarised the situation as follows: “It
is considered virtually a certainty by military experts that if the Reich succeeds...an attack
on Egypt will be launched. Should the Germans...occupy the Caucasus and then push
on to Iran and the Persian Gulf they will then outflank the British Middle Eastern positions
by a wide sweep and perhaps by Autumn begin to make trouble in Iraq.”
Scary stuff for the Allies. But even worse, the Wehrmacht had cut off the
USSR’s key ports. Stalin desperately needed military supplies from Britain and the USA
to maintain the fight against the Axis. Without the ports,
the best way to get these supplies was via the trans-Iranian railway, part of the “Persian
Corridor,” which connected the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea. Iran was now a strategic fulcrum.
In July 1941, British and Soviet diplomats demanded the Shah boot out any Germans living in
the country. Not wishing to antagonise anyone, he refused, and the international pressure gave rise
to anti-British protests in Tehran. The British countered by declaring the Iranians were pro-Nazi,
which they weren’t. This worried the Shah. He had already seen, during the disastrous
Anglo-Iraqi War of May 1941, that the British were prepared to fight anyone they considered pro-Axis.
On August 17th, another demand to expel all Germans was issued to the Shah.
He rejected this one, too, but, in doing so, sealed his fate. It was, in fact,
a cleverly disguised ultimatum. One week later, the tanks rolled in.
Iran was attacked in a giant pincer movement. To the north,
General Kozlov led the Soviet 44th, 47th, and 53rd Field Armies in a sweeping attack.
One thousand T-26 light tanks acted as a vanguard for 200,000 Soviet soldiers advancing south
from Soviet Turkmenistan and Soviet Azerbaijan. Hundreds of Soviet bombers thundered in the skies
above, their targets picked out from intelligence meticulously collected by the British.
The 47th Army achieved total surprise, steamrolling into Tabriz. The Iranian 3rd
Division was positioned to intercept them, but poor communications prevented it from doing so.
By the time the 3rd was ready, the Soviets had already broken through.
To the east, the 53rd Army attacked Ardebil. There, they encountered the Iranian 15th Division.
It put up a strong defence, despite its useless commander. While his men
held the line against massive Soviet attacks, Brigadier-General Qaderi jumped in his staff car
and bolted. He even ordered supply trucks to dump rations and ammo in the desert
so they could be loaded with his personal belonging instead. Other Iranian commanders
were cut off in rear-echelon headquarters and were unable to communicate with their men.
Despite this, the Iranian ground troops held their resolve. Leaderless and without orders,
the Iranian 3rd and 15th Divisions held formation and marched towards the enemy,
succeeding in pushing the Soviets back in a few locations. Such is the power of high morale.
But tanks, planes,
and artillery proved decisive. The Soviets eventually surrounded the brave Iranians
and pummeled them until they surrendered. Iran’s north was lost to the Soviets on August 26th.
While the Soviets battled in the north, British forces, which were mostly Indians,
attacked in the south. They airdropped leaflets on towns and cities explaining that, actually,
they weren’t invading, even if it looked like they were. Instead, they claimed to be pre-emptively
liberating Iran from German occupation. Kind of like how Germany pre-emptively liberated Poland
from Allied occupation, or pre-emptively liberated France from French occupation.
The Royal Air Force then flew in and bombed Tehran and Qazvin. They were aiming for military targets,
but bombing in 1941 was much more miss than hit. Several hundred civilians were killed.
British paratroopers secured the Abadan Refinery, which was priority one,
and then engaged Iranian forces. Indian troops advanced from Basra in occupied Iraq
and took southern Iran after a series of battles against the outmatched Iranians. They also had
naval support. Ships of both the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy steamed up the river
separating Iran and Iraq to pound Iranian positions and land amphibious forces. By the 26th,
the British had captured the entire region. Only scattered Iranian resistance remained.
While Tehran shuddered from explosions of both British and Soviet bombs,
Reza Shah demanded the ambassadors of the invaders explain themselves. He wanted to know why they
were invading and why they hadn’t declared war. Both said it was because of “German residents.”
When the Shah asked them if they would stop after he kicked the Germans out, they did not answer.
His generals then requested permission to blow up Iran’s major roads and bridges to
slow the Allied advance, but the Shah refused. He could not bear to destroy the fruits of his
many pre-war infrastructure projects. The Allies would be allowed to pass unimpeded.
On August 27th, the British advanced to Ahvaz, from where they planned to drive north,
capture Qazvin, link up with the Soviets, and have the whole thing done in time
for tea and medals. But it wasn’t quite so easy. The Iranians, again possessing very high morale,
had entrenched themselves around the city and refused to budge.
They even withstood several British armoured attacks.
The Soviets faced a similar situation. Three Iranian soldiers stopped the entire Soviet
advance by making a last stand on an important bridge. The Soviets couldn’t risk using artillery,
so they had to repeatedly charge the men with infantry. The Iranians held them back for hours.
By August 28th, the Iranian situation was hopeless. The British had decided to go
around Ahvaz, and the three soldiers holding up the Soviets had run out of ammo and finally been
killed. The Soviets threatened to completely flatten Tehran with bombs, and the British
blockade was already causing food shortages. On the 29th, four days after the invasion began,
the Shah ordered a ceasefire. Continued resistance was hopeless in the face of
combined Soviet and British firepower, and Reza wanted to keep Iran intact.
The Persian Corridor became the primary mode for supplies to reach the Soviet Union,
with five million tons being transported during the war.
Iran never fully accepted Allied occupation, and resistance forces battled them to the very end.
But what do YOU think? Was Iran simply a victim of its geography
and natural resources? Why do YOU think the Iranian soldiers had such high morale?
Was Reza Shah right not to destroy the roads and bridges? Let us know in the comments!