Persian Gulf Command

The command originated in September 1941, when the US Military Iranian Mission, led by Colonel Raymond A. Wheeler (US Army Corps of Engineers) was established.

Adolf Hitler believed that German military forces could eventually take possession of the oil fields and the railroad that went through the mountains from the Persian Gulf to the Russian border.

Those who arrived in the summer of 1942 met with pouring rain and mud more than a foot deep, but had to pitch tents to sleep on the ground for the next six months until huts were built.

The rainy season was followed by temperatures that rose as high as 100 degrees,[citation needed] accompanied by sand storms that lasted for up to a week, constantly changing the landscape.

Army engineers transformed the camel paths into a highway for trucks and improved the railroad with its more than 200 tunnels so trains could carry tanks and tons of other heavy equipment over the mountains.