Persian Corridor
English-language official documents from the Persian Corridor period continue to make the word "Persia" interchangeable with the name of Iran.
In correspondence by the government of the United Kingdom, usage of "Persia" over "Iran" was chosen by Winston Churchill to avoid possible confusion with neighbouring Iraq.
Both countries used concessions extracted in previous interventions to pressure neutral Iran (and, in Britain's case, Iraq) into allowing the use of their territory for military and logistical purposes.
In 1942 the United States, now an ally of Britain and the Soviet Union in World War II, sent a military force to Iran to help maintain and operate sections of the railway.
The new Shah soon signed an agreement pledging full non-military logistical co-operation with the British and Soviets in exchange for full recognition of his country's independence, and also a promise to withdraw from Iran within six months of the war's conclusion (the assurances later proved essential in securing his country's independence after the war).
In 1946, Hossein Gol-e-Golab published the nationalist song Ey Iran, which was reportedly inspired[citation needed] by an incident during the war in which Golab witnessed an American GI beating up a native Iranian greengrocer in a marketplace dispute.
After the Dunkirk evacuation and the agreement with Vichy France, Germany was essentially without any military opposition in mainland Europe until Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Realizing that would take time, the Western Allies made the strategic decision to provide Stalin with material support substantial enough to ensure that the Red Army could continue to engage the bulk of the German military.
The Allies delivered all manner of materiel to the Soviet Union ranging from Studebaker US6 trucks to American canned food.
The mission was originally commanded by Colonel Don G. Shingler, who was replaced late in 1942 by Brigadier General Donald H. Connolly.
About 7,900,000 long tons (8,000,000 t) of shipborne cargo from Allied sources were unloaded in the Corridor, most of it bound for the Soviet Union and some of it for British forces, under the Middle East Command, or for the Iranian economy, which was sustaining the influx of tens of thousands of foreign troops and Polish refugees.
Many skilled engineers, accountants, and other professionals who volunteered or were drafted into the armed services were made warrant officers to help oversee the complex supply operations.
