Koridor Persia

Koridor Persia adalah jalur penyaluran bantuan Amerika Serikat dan Inggris kepada Uni Soviet selama Perang Dunia II yang melalui Iran dan Azerbaijan.

Berkas:Iranian women watch an Allied supply convoy halted somewhere on the Corridor. 1943.gif

Perempuan Iran menyaksikan konvoi suplai Sekutu yang sedang terhenti di suatu tempat di Koridor Persia

Peta Iran & batas-batas dengan negara-negara bekas Republik Soviet Armenia, Turkmenistan, dan Azerbaijan

Istilah

Dokumen-dokumen resmi berbahasa Inggris tentang Koridor Persia mengacu istilah "Persia" untuk negara "Iran". Dalam korespondensi pemerintah Inggris, penggunaan istilah "Persia" dipilih oleh Perdana Menteri Inggris Winston Churchill untuk menghindari kerancuang dengan negara tetangganya Iraq.

Pemakzulan Shah Iran

See main article Invasi Inggris-Uni Soviet ke Iran

Berkas:Reza Shah Pahlavi.jpg

Reza Shah Pahlavi

Setelah invasi Jerman Nazi ke Uni Soviet pada Juni 1941, Inggris dan Uni Soviet menjadi sekutu dan keduanya mengalihkan perhatiannya ke Iran. Inggris dan Uni Soviet memandang jalur kereta api Trans-Iranian Railway sebagai rute yang menarik untuk mengangkut suplai dari Teluk Persia ke Uni Soviet. Inggris dan Uni Soviet menggunakan konsesi yang mereka peroleh dari intervensi terdahulu untuk menekan Iran (dan, dalam kasus Inggris, Iraq juga) hingga mengijinkan menggunakan teritori negara-negara tersebut untuk keperluan militer dan logistik. Meningkatnya ketegangan politik dengan Inggris memicu demonstrasi-demonstrasi massa pro-Jerman di Tehran. Pada Agustus 1941, Reza Shah menolak untuk mengusir seluruh warga Jerman dan menjadi alasan yang jelas bagi pihak Sekutu, Inggris dan Uni Soviet menginvasi Iran, menangkap sang raja dan mengasingkannya ke Afrika Selatan, untuk mengambil alih komunikasi dan jalur kereta api Iran yang mereka incar.

Reza Shah di pengasingannya di Afrika Selatan

son of Reza Shah meeting with FDR at the Tehran Conference, 1943

Pada awal tahun 1942, Amerika Serikat, yang saat itu belum terlibat di Perang Dunia II, mengirim pasukannya ke Iran untuk membantu menjaga dan mengoperasikan jalur kereta api tersebut. Inggris dan Uni Soviet membiarkan sistem pemerintahan Reza Shah runtuh, dan membatasi campur tangan pemerintah konstitusional. Mereka menempatkan putra mahkota Reza Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ke atas tahta Iran.

Shah yang baru bertahta segera menandatangani perjanjian kerjasama soon logistik non-militer dengan Inggris dan Uni Soviet, dengan imbalan pengakuan atas kemerdekaan negerinya, dan juga janji untuk menarik pasukan mereka dari Iran 6 bulan setelah perang berakhir. Pada bulan September 1943, Shah bertindak lebih jauh lagi dengan menyatakan perang terhadap Jerman. Ia menandatangani Deklarasi Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa yang memberikan negerinya kursi di Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa yang asli. Dua bulan kemudian, ia menjadi tuan rumah Konferensi Teheran antara Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, dan Josef Stalin.

Keberadaan banyak prajurit asing di Iran memacu perubahan sosial dan menaikkan sentimen nasional di dalam negerinya. Pada tahun 1946, Hossein Gol-e-Golab menulis lagu nasionalis Ey Iran; yang konon terinspirasi oleh insiden yang disaksikan Golab selama perang dimana tentara Amerika memukuli seorang pedagang sayuran dalam sebuah keributan di pasar.

Pasukan Anders

Sementara itu, pemimpin Uni Soviet Joseph Stalin, di bawah tekanan Inggris dan pemerintahan Polandia di pengasingan, mulai membebaskan beberapa tawanan perang Polandia yang ditangkap pada tahun 1939, dan juga warga Polandia kemudian dideportasi dari wilayah pendudukan Uni Soviet ke republik-republik Soviet, dengan tujuan untuk membentuk tentara Polandia yang bertempur di pihak Sekutu. Jenderal Władysław Anders dibebaskan dari penjara Lubyanka, dan ia mulai menyusun pasukannya. Namun, friksi dengan Uni Soviet yang berkelanjutan dan penolakan mereka untuk memasok pasukan Polandia dengan peralatan perang dan makanan yang mencukupi, dan desakan Uni Soviet untuk menempatkan unit-unit pasukan Polandia yang belum siap tempur di front, menyebabkan penarikan mundur pasukan Anders, bersama dengan pengungsi sipil Polandia dalam jumlah yang besar, ke Iran. Pasukan ini kemudian menjadi basis dari apa yang nanti disebut sebagai Korps Polandia ke-2 yang bertempur dengan membanggakan dalam Kampanye Italia tetapi sebagian pengungsi sipil menetap permanen di Iran. Sebagian pengungsi Polandia yang menetap di Iran saat ini diabadikan dalam film independen karya Jagna Wright dan Aneta Naszynska, A Forgotten Odyssey (2002).

Upaya-upaya Pemasokan

A United States Army truck convoy carrying supplies for the aid of Russia somewhere along the Persian Corridor. c. 1943

An American engine transporting allied aid for Russia, stopping at a station. Supplies moved by road, rail and air through the Persian Corridor. c. 1943

An assembly plant for American fighter warplanes destined for Russia, somewhere in Iran. c.1943

American and British soldier trainmen standing at a station on the route for supplies to Russia. An American engine is seen at the head of the train at left. c. 1943

The Allies delivered all manner of materiel to the Soviets, from Studebaker US6 trucks to American B-24 bombers. Most supplies in the corridor arrived by ship at Persian Gulf ports, and then were carried north by railway or in truck convoys. Some goods were reloaded onto ships to cross the Caspian Sea, and others continued by truck.

The United States Army forces in the corridor were originally under the Iran-Iraq Service Command - later renamed the Persian Gulf Service Command (PGSC). This was the successor to the original United States Military Iranian Mission, which had been put in place to deliver Lend-Lease supplies before the United States had entered the World War. The mission was originally commanded by Colonel Don G. Shingler, who was then replaced late in 1942 by Brigadier General Donald H. Connolly. Both the Iran-Iraq Service Command and the PGSC were subordinate to the U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East (USAFIME). PGSC was eventually renamed simply the Persian Gulf Command.

Statistics

The Allied supply efforts were enormous. The Americans alone delivered over 16.3 million tonnes to the Soviets during the war, via three routes, including Arctic convoys of World War II to the ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk. Also, Soviet shipping carried supplies from the west coast of the United States and Canada to Vladivostok in the Far East, since the Soviet Union was not at war with Japan at that time (until August 1945). The Persian Corridor was the route for 4,159,117 long tons (4,225,858 metric tonnes) of this cargo. However, this was not the only American contribution via the Persian Corridor - not to mention the contributions of other Allies like Great Britain, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and numerous other nations, colonies, and protectorates of the Allied nations. All told, about 7,900,000 long tons (8,000,000 metric tonnes) of shipborne cargo from Allied sources were unloaded in the Corridor, most of it bound for Russia - but 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. Also, supplies were needed for the development of new transportation and logistics facilities in Persia and in the Soviet Union. The tonnage figure does not include transfers of warplanes via Persia.

Supply routes

Persian Gulf Command, Camps - Posts - Stations

Supplies came from as far away as Canada and the United States, and those were unloaded in Persian Gulf ports in Iran and Iraq. Once the Axis powers were cleared from the Mediterranean Sea in 1943 - with the Allied capture of Tunisia, Sicily, and southern Italy - cargo convoys were able to pass through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the Red Sea to Iran for shipment to the USSR.

The main ports in the Corridor for supplies inbound to Iran were: in Iran,

• Bushehr
• Bandar Shahpur (now Bandar Imam Khomeini); and

in Iraq,

• Basra
• Umm Qasr.

The main overland routes were from the ports to Tehran, and then

• Tehran — Askhabad or
• Tehran — Baku

or, alternatively,

• Basra — Kazvin or
• Dzhulfa — Beslan.

The main port for outbound supplies (via the Caspian Sea) was Nowshahr. Ships ferried supplies from this port to Baku or Makhachkala.

Other locations

Important smaller ports and transit points on the routes included:

in Azerbaijan

• Lenkoran;

in Armenia

• Yerevan;

in Georgia

• Tbilisi;

in North Ossetia-Alania

• Beslan;

in Iran

An Allied supply train en route bearing supplies for the Red Army

Ports

• Bandar Anzali
• Bandar Abbas
• Chabahar
• Noshahr
• Bandar-e Shah (now Bandar Torkoman)
• Amir Abad port
• Khoramshahr
• Bushehr
• Assalouyeh
• Mahshahr
• BIK port
• Fereydunkenar [1]

Cities

Andimeshk Tehran Tabriz Hamadan Isfahan Karaj Khorramabad Kashan Malayer Mashad

Mianeh[[{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]  Sari, Iran Semnan Shahroud Shiraz Tabriz Qom Zanjan Zahedan

in Turkmenistan

Ports

• Krasnovodsk

Cities

• Ashgabat
• Kizyl Arvat
• Kizyl Atrek

Personnel

American and British railroad crews operated trains and trucks to bring supplies to Russia. c.1943

Cargo was principally handled by special British and American transportation units from the nations' respective combat service support branches, such as the Royal Army Service Corps and the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Many Allied civilian workers, such as stevedores and railway engineers, were also employed on the corridor. 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.

In addition to providing logistical support to the Iranians, the Allies offered other services as well. The Americans in particular were viewed as more neutral since they had no colonial past in the country as did the British and Russians. The Americans contributed special expertise to the young Shah's government. Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., who at the outbreak of the war was serving as superintendent of the New Jersey State Police was in August 1942 put in charge of training the Imperial Iranian Gendarmerie. (Coincidentally, his son, Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., would make his own mark on the Middle East almost fifty years later during the Persian Gulf War.)

Equipment

To help operate trains on the demanding Trans-Iranian Railway route, the US supplied large numbers of ALCO diesel locomotives, which were more suitable than steam locomotives. About 3000 pieces of rolling stock of various types were also supplied.

See also

• History of Iran
• Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre
• Military history of the Soviet Union
• Polish contribution to World War II
• Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
• Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1907
• Royal Road
• Operation cedar

External links

• Coakley, Robert W. (2000) [1960]. "Chapter 9: The Persian Corridor as a Route for Aid to the USSR". Dalam Greenfield, Kent Roberts. Command Decisions. Washington: United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 72-7. 
• Motter, T.H. Vail (2000) [1952]. The Persian Corridor and Aid To Russia. Washington: United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 8-1. 
• Trucks Lend Leased to Russia amateur history page with detailed maps and statistics
• The North-South Iranian Corridor today
• A Forgotten Odyssey website