Mountain Comes to Mohammed

During the Anglo-Soviet invasion of neutral Iran, British forces attempt to take a strongpoint in the desert held by a battalion of the elite Pahlavi Guards Regiment, devout Muslims pledged to defend the Shah, and armed with modern Czech weapons.

1941-08-25

G24

During the Anglo-Soviet invasion of neutral Iran, British forces attempt to take a strongpoint in the desert held by a battalion of the elite Pahlavi Guards Regiment, devout Muslims pledged to defend the Shah, and armed with modern Czech weapons.

Qasr Shaikh, Iran

The Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran or Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia was the joint invasion of the neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941. The invasion, codenamed Operation Countenance, was largely unopposed by the numerically and technologically outmatched Iranian forces. The multi-pronged coordinated invasion took place along Iran's borders with modern Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan with fighting beginning on 25 August and ending on 31 August when the Iranian government formally agreed to surrender, having already agreed to a ceasefire on 30 August. The invasion took place two months after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union's subsequent alliance with the United Kingdom. The attack also took place less than two months after Allied victories over pro-Axis forces in neighboring Iraq and French Syria and Lebanon. The invasion's strategic purpose was to ensure the safety of Allied supply lines to the USSR (see the Persian Corridor), secure Iranian oil fields, limit German influence in Iran (Reza Shah was considered friendly to Nazi Germany) and preempt a possible Axis advance from Turkey through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or British India. Following the invasion, on 16 September 1941 Reza Shah abdicated and was forced into exile by the invading British.

British

Iranian

Scenario Type = Standard