Persian Corridor

Allied road and rail supply lines through Persia into the USSR
Indian Army soldiers stand next to a supply convoy en route to the Soviet Union, 1944

The Persian Corridor was a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II. Of the 17.5 million long tons of US Lend-Lease aid provided to the Soviet Union, 7.9 million long tons (45%) were sent through Iran.[1]

This supply route originated in the US and the UK with ships sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to the Persian Gulf. From there, the materiel transited Iran to the Soviet Union. Other supply routes included the Northern route across the Arctic, and the Pacific Route which handled US cargo at Vladivostok and then used the Trans-Siberian Railway across the Soviet Union.

This Persian Route became the only viable, all-weather route to be developed to supply Soviet needs.

  1. ^ Ward, Steven R. (2009). Immortal : A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Georgetown University Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-58901-258-5.