This week, seventy years ago, the Imperial State of Iran was, preemptively, invaded from two directions. The Red Army came from the north, while forces of the United Kingdom struck from the south. When the attacks began, the Iranian Shah appealed to the U.S. for help based on the principles of the recently published “Atlantic Charter.” His pleas were rebuffed by the American President, who explained that the United Kingdom and the U.S.S.R. were in a struggle for their very existence and the freedom of Europe, and possibly the world, from Axis domination, and that sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.
    The Soviets saw Iran as another, weatherproof, route for supplies from the western Allies, while the British were concerned that the Shah’s Axis-leaning government might shut off the flow of oil. When the Shah refused to expel the few Germans in the country - less than a thousand - and denied the British the use of the Iranian rail system, the die was cast.
    The British launched their attack at dawn, on August 25th, when the sloop H.M.S. Shoreham, attacked and sank the Iranian sloop Palang at the harbor of Abadan.  Abadan is located 33 miles from the Persian Gulf near the Iraq/Iran border on the Shatt Al-Arab Waterway. The largest oil refinery in the world, at that time, was located at Abadan. The oil refinery at Abadan was captured by two battalions from the Eighth Indian Division and the 24th Indian Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Roger E. Le Fleming, which crossed the Shatt al-Arab from the Iraqi city of Basra.  During this attack, Rear Admiral Gholamali Bayandor, Commander of the Imperial Iranian Navy, was killed defending his country.
    In the north, the Soviet Forty-Fourth, and Forty-Seventh Armies commanded by, respectively, Major General Aleksandr A. Khadeev and Lieutenant General Vasilii V. Novikov, also crossed the border from Azerbaijan on August 25, 1941.  Two days later the Soviet Fifty-Third Army crossed the border from Turkmenistan. These armies were part of the Soviet Transcaucasian Front, commanded by Lieutenant General Demitry T. Kozlov.  A Soviet “Front” was roughly the equivalent of an army group.
    The first two armies contained two mountain rifle divisions while the Forty-Fourth Army contained a calvary division and a tank regiment and the Forty-Seventh Army contained a rifle and two tank divisions and motor cycle regiment.  The Fifty-Third Army contained a rifle and a calvary corps and a mountain rifle division.
    The Red Army captured the port city of Bandar-e Pahlavi, on the Caspian Sea. After the Iranian Revolution, its name was changed to Bandar-e Anzali. Today, it has a population of 150,000 and is known for its caviar production.  The 2500-year-old city of Tabriz was captured by the K.E. Voroshilov Rifle Division of Forty-Seventh Army. The Division was named for Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. At the time, Tabriz was the second largest city in Iran. Now, with a population of 1,400,000, it is the fourth largest.
    Commonwealth forces were commanded by Lt.-Gen. Edward Quinan, who had also commanded Commonwealth forces in the British invasion of Iraq. Those forces consisted of the Eighth and Tenth Indian Infantry Divisions, under the command of Major-Generals Sir Charles O. Harvey and William Slim, respectively. The Tenth had been tasked with, in the invasion of Iraq, occupying the port city of Basra. Sixty-two years later, the British would replicate that task, during the ill-conceived, and illegal, American led invasion.
    At the same time, the Australian-Armed Merchant Cruiser, Kanimbla, delivered a force to the Port of Bandar-e-Shahpur, which was controlled by Germans and Italians. Today the city has a population of less than 50,000.  Simultaneously, the 18th and 25th  Indian Brigades, under the command of Brigadier Generals Rupert Lochner and Ronald G. Mountain, respectively, attacked Qasr Shiekh, and captured it. Within three days, this force had also captured Ahvaz, which is the capital of the province of Khuzestan and is, today, home to some 1,500,000 Iranians. Khuzestan borders on Iraq and is home to many Arab speakers. These facts formed part of the basis for Iraq’s eight year war against Iran, which began in September 1980.
    Major-General William Slim led eight battalions of Indian Troops through the Naft-I-Shah Oil Field and onto the Pai Tak Pass, which was taken on August the 27th.  After the war he was awarded the Field Marshal’s baton and became Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
    The Red Army and Commonwealth Forces met at the Iranian cities of Senna, located 100 miles west of Hamadan, and Azvin, located 100 miles west of Tehran and 200 miles northeast of Hamadan, on August 30 and 31, respectively.  Both cities are near the Caspian Sea. Senna is Kurdish and Azvin, or Qazvin, is Persian.
    The British delivered a note to the Iranian Ruler, the Shah, which read, “Would his Highness kindly abdicate in favor of his son, the Heir to the Throne?  We have a high opinion of him and will ensure his position. But his Highness should not think there is any other solution.” The Shah abdicated, as “requested,” and was replaced on the throne on September 16, 1941 by his 21-year-old son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.  The following day the Red Army and Commonwealth Forces entered the Iranian capital of Tehran. The former Shah was sent into exile, in South Africa, where he died July 26, 1944.
    The new Iranian government agreed that the Axis legations would be closed and that Axis nationals would leave the country. For the rest of the war, Iran was divided into Soviet and British zones of occupation. The two powers divided the operation of the Trans-Iranian Railway, with the British operating the leg between the Persian Gulf and Tehran and the Soviets the portion from Tehran to the Caspian Sea. Once the U.S. entered the war, it effectively assumed control of the British zone, essentially running the country through the medium of its “advisors.”  By the end of the war, there were 30,000 American uniforms in the country, with the military contingent first commanded by Brig. Gen. Don G. Shingler, and then later by Donald H. Connolly.
    The conquest of Iran had come very cheaply - 22 Commonwealth, and 40 Soviet, soldiers killed and 40 Commonwealth troops wounded. The conquered suffered 800 soldiers, and 200 civilians, killed and four years of occupation.
    More than 7,000,000 tons of supplies were shipped by the Western Allies to the U.S.S.R. through the Persian Corridor.
    Current Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is now demanding reparations for the invasion and occupation.

NEXT WEEK: THE BATTLE FOR KIEV

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.