Persian corridor
 
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Location of Bandar-e Shahpur, Tehran and Bandar Pahlawi in Iran |
The Persian Corridor was a supply route that the United States used to transport five million tons of military equipment and supplies through Iran to the Soviet Union over a period of four and a half years during World War II under the Loan and Lease Act . The political importance of the Persian Corridor extends far beyond its military importance. With the establishment of this supply route, the USA became the determining political factor in Iran. They took over the role of the British, who had significantly influenced Iranian politics up to this point. The Persian Corridor led mainly as a railway line from Bandar-e Schahpur (today: Bandar-e Imam Chomeini ) on the Persian Gulf via Tehran to Bandar Pahlawi (today Bandar Anzali ) on the south bank of the Caspian Sea . There were also other traffic connections to the north. From Bandar Pahlawi, the military equipment was transported by ship to Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga in the Caspian Sea and from there by river boats to Stalingrad . The German attack on Stalingrad in 1942 was to interrupt the further transport of these goods on the Volga to the north.
background
After the German invasion on June 22, 1941, Great Britain and the Soviet Union became allies in the fight against Hitler. Reza Shah's efforts to build a strong and independent Iran with the help of Germany had stalled at the beginning of the Second World War. On September 3, 1939, two days after the German invasion of Poland , Iran declared its neutrality.
Since Reza Shah took over the reign on December 15, 1925, trade with Germany had multiplied at the expense of Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The largest project that had been tackled with German help was the construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway from the Caspian Sea in the northeast to the Persian Gulf in the southwest of Iran. In addition, many construction projects had been planned and implemented together with the Germans. These included the lecture halls and institute buildings of the University of Tehran, the construction of several ministries and the central train station in Tehran. Since the beginning of the war, deliveries of goods from Germany to Iran were only possible via the Soviet Union, as the British controlled the Suez Canal and blocked the transport of German goods through the canal. For its part, the Soviet Union delayed transports from Germany and refused to negotiate a transit agreement with Iran. The further expansion of the Trans-Iranian Railway came to a standstill.
In April 1941 there was a coup d'etat against the pro-British government in Iraq . The new ruler, Raschid Ali al-Gailani , who was prime minister in Iraq for a short time in 1933 and 1940, had contacted the German ambassador to Turkey, Franz von Papen , in 1940 and agreed on close cooperation between Iraq and Germany. Gailani immediately asked the British forces to leave the country. Even Syria was due to the close relations with Vichy France German pro. With the loss of Iraq and the pro-German governments in Damascus and Tehran, British supremacy in the Middle East seemed to be drawing to a close. The British troops stationed in Basra did not leave Iraq, however, but went on the offensive against the Iraqi armed forces in May, marched on Baghdad and overthrew the Gailani government. The German Air Force tried to support the Iraqi troops with the Junck Sonderkommando (15 Heinkel 111 and 14 Messerschmitt 110 , led by Lieutenant General Werner Junck), but had to give up due to a lack of spare parts and aviation fuel.
Despite the close ties between Iran and Germany, at the beginning of the war in Tehran it was considered possible that Iran's neutrality would be respected by the warring states. This changed suddenly with the German attack on the Soviet Union. As early as the second week of July 1941, the British cabinet instructed its military to plan an attack on Iran and to ask the Soviet Union for support. However, the Soviet Union was so militarily troubled by the surprise attack by the Germans that it initially rejected an attack on Iran because it saw no danger for the supplies promised by the USA via the Trans-Iranian Railway. For the British, however, it was not just about military support for the Russians through US deliveries of weapons, trucks, airplanes, etc., they wanted above all to secure the oil facilities in the south and north of Iran against acts of sabotage. So under all circumstances it had to be prevented that the world's largest oil refinery in Abadan , which was owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company , with an annual production of 8 million tons of oil (as of 1940), fell into German hands during a military collapse of the Soviet Union. Further considerations resulted in the replacement of Reza Shah and the re-establishment of the Qajar dynasty , with which both Tsarist Russia and Great Britain had worked very successfully for generations (→ see: Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1907) ).
After the German submarine fleet had made it difficult for northern sea convoys to Murmansk and Turkey was not ready to allow British military transports through the Dardanelles in support of the Soviet Union , Great Britain and the Soviet Union reached an agreement on July 23, 1941 to occupy Iran. The Soviet ambassador to Great Britain met British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that day and told him that his government was now ready to occupy Iran ( Operation Countenance ). By August 7, 1941, detailed plans for the attack had been drawn up. The aim was to secure the Iranian oil fields and build a secure supply line through Iran that would allow military goods to be transported by ship from the USA through the Suez Canal to the Persian Gulf and from there overland to the Soviet Union.
The Anglo-Soviet invasion
After the decision to attack Iran was made, British troops stationed in India were transferred to Iraq. The Soviet Union mobilized its troops on the northern border of Iran. On August 16, 1941, the British ambassador to Iran, Bullard, together with the Soviet ambassador, Smirnov, delivered an ultimatum to the Iranian foreign minister, Ameri. All Germans are to be expelled from Iran within 48 hours. At that time there were still around 470 German engineers and technicians in Iran. On August 22, 1941, Reza Shah gave in to the Russian / British ultimatum and ordered the expulsion of all Germans who were not absolutely necessary. On August 25, 1941, 35,000 British and 120,000 Soviet soldiers marched into Iran from the north, south and west.
Reza Shah had charged General Hajj Ali Razmara with the preparations for the national defense. The blowing up of bridges, railway stations or the carrying out of acts of sabotage by army units had been prohibited. Rasht, Qazvin and Tabriz were bombed by Soviet planes. As it quickly became clear that there was little to be done militarily against the British / Soviet invasion corps, Iran declared a unilateral armistice on August 26, 1941. Prime Minister Ali Mansur resigned on August 27. Reza Shah appointed Mohammad Ali Foroughi as the new Prime Minister, who immediately met with the British and Soviet ambassadors. They demanded the immediate abdication of Reza Shah and the resignation of Crown Prince Mohammad Reza. The British initially thought of reinstating a Qajar prince , Mohammad Hassan, but then suggested that a viceroy appointed by them should take over the business of government. The question of replacing the Pahlavis with a Qajar was considered by the British in both the 1940s and 1950s. It turned out to be problematic, however, that Hamid, the son of Mohammad Hassan, who also came into question as pretender to the throne, had meanwhile taken the surname Drummond, had become a British citizen, served in the British merchant navy and did not speak a word of Persian.
On August 30, 1941, Iran was divided into three zones by the Soviet Union and the British. The northern zone fell under the administration of the Soviet Union and the southern zone with the oil areas under the administration of Great Britain. Only a narrow strip in the middle of the country around Tehran remained under Iranian control. On September 14, the British and Soviet ambassadors, Reza Shah, gave an ultimate call to resign by September 17 at 12 noon. Should this not happen, Tehran would be occupied, the monarchy abolished and an occupation administration established. This was preceded by a propaganda campaign initiated by Winston Churchill on a British radio station stationed in Iraq. In the programs aimed at the Iranian people, Reza Shah was accused of ruling his people badly, exploiting them for years and shamelessly enriching himself at the expense of the hard-working Iranian people.
On the morning of September 16, 1941 (25th Shahrivar 1320) Reza Shah signed his declaration of abdication in favor of his son Mohammad Reza . At 9:30 a.m., Parliament (Majlis) approved the abdication. To prevent Mohammad Reza from being arrested by British or Soviet agents before he was sworn in as Shah, he was brought into Parliament in civilian clothes in an old Chrysler, hidden between the front and back seats, via the servants' entrance. At 4 p.m. he swore the oath of allegiance to the Koran in front of parliament and took over the business of government as a shah from September 17, 1941.
The tripartite agreement
On September 17, 1941, the British and Soviet troops marched into Tehran. British and Soviet officials quickly took control of all ministries. On October 27, 1941, Mohammad Reza Shah was informed by the ambassadors of Great Britain and the Soviet Union that he only had representative functions. The 22-year-old Shah successfully fought against his disempowerment. On January 29, 1942, the Iranian Parliament ratified the tripartite agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Forughi and the British and Soviet ambassadors, which guaranteed the territorial integrity of Iran and the withdrawal of allied troops after the end of the Second World War. In return, the Allies were given complete control over all traffic and communications links, such as the railroad, road network, airfields, ports, pipelines, telephone network and radio. This freed the transport route from the Persian Gulf through Iran to the Caspian Sea and then on to Astrakhan on ships .
The beginning of the aid deliveries
At the beginning of September 1941, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had asked Harry Hopkins , the former Secretary of Commerce of the United States, sent to Great Britain by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , whether the Americans could use locomotives and freight cars for transport under the loan and lease program that came into force in Iran on March 11, 1941 who could provide military goods to the Soviet Union. Churchill also proposed the active participation of the Americans in the expansion of the Iranian railways and roads as well as the ports of Bandar-e Shahpur on the Persian Gulf and Bandar Pahlawi on the Caspian Sea.
Roosevelt agreed to Churchill's proposal, and on September 27, 1941, an American military mission began work in Iran. She should initially assist the British troops in technical matters. But it soon became obvious that the American technicians and specialists had to take over the expansion and guarantee of safe traffic through the Persian corridor if the goal of providing the Soviet troops with massive material support with military equipment was to be achieved.
American engineers equipped the Iranian port of Khorramshahr at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab with unloading facilities, storage rooms, quays, shipyards and cranes. The port basin was expanded for American lend lease transports. Americans built roads that American trucks would use to transport goods to the Soviet border.
At the beginning of 1942, American experts built an assembly hall in Abadan for the Douglas A-20 aircraft, which was urgently needed by the Soviet Union . Assembly halls were also built for the American trucks, especially of the Studebaker US6 type (as Katyusha mounts), which were of particular importance for the Soviet armed forces.
The German attack on the Caucasus
On June 28, 1942, the German summer offensive began in the Soviet Union ( Blue case ). The Army Group South was given the task of occupying the industrial area on the Donets and then both taking the strategically important railway junction Stalingrad in the north of their operational area and advancing to the oil fields at Maikop , Grozny and Baku in the extreme south of the attack area. The north wing, consisting of the 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army and the Romanian 4th Army, was supposed to destroy the enemy in the Donbogen by encircling them, conquering Stalingrad and thus blocking the Volga for Russian supplies. The north flank, which was getting longer and longer due to this advance, was to be secured by the 2nd Army , the Hungarian 2nd Army and the Italian 8th Army . After the fall of Stalingrad, the 4th Panzer Army, together with the 1st Panzer Army and the 17th Army, were to advance south towards the Caucasus and Baku. The 11th Army and the Romanian 3rd Army , which were still tied up on the Crimean peninsula for the time being, were to be brought across the Kerch Strait . The second part of the German summer offensive following the Blau company was carried out with the Edelweiß company on July 23, 1942. The aim of the company was to conquer the oil reserves in and around Baku.
Overall, as far as the space gained in the Caucasus is concerned, the companies expired within a few weeks. On August 4th Stavropol was taken, on August 9th Krasnodar was reached and the Kuban crossed.
The Romanian allies succeeded in rolling up the Soviet defense on the east coast of the Sea of Azov from the north and opening the Taman Peninsula from "backwards". Maikop fell into German hands on August 9 and the entrances to the Ossetian and Georgian Heerstrasse were taken over. The Elbrus massif itself was also taken; on August 21, the German war flag waved on the summit . An attack on Tuapse that began on August 26th was halted after two days, but the port city of Anapa was attacked on August 31st after heavy fighting and on September 11th, after parts of the 11th Army had landed on the Taman Peninsula ( Company Blucher ), Novorossiysk , the most important base of the Black Sea Fleet . In the high mountains, German troops had taken the most important pass crossings and temporarily crossed them on a broad front to the south - they were in the Abkhazian mountain village of Pschu , 20 kilometers off the coast of the Black Sea near Gudauta . East of the Elbrus, the German and Romanian troops stood in the sections of the Baksan and Terek rivers to Naurskaja . To the north of it the front was lost on the Kuma , in the Nogaier steppe and in the Kalmuck steppe .
On September 9, Hitler relieved Field Marshal List, whom he accused of not adhering to his operational guidelines, of his command as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group A. The severe leadership crisis in Army Group A also led to the replacement of Chief of Staff Franz Halder at the end of September . By November 22, 1942, Hitler took over the leadership of Army Group A personally and then commissioned von Kleist with the supreme command. The offensive movements of the Army Group had already come to a standstill when the encirclement of the 6th Army near Stalingrad posed a serious threat to the troops south of the Don.
When, at the end of December 1942, the Soviet troops repulsed the German relief attack, Operation Wintergewitter, for the enclosed 6th Army and, with the North Caucasian operation , started the counter-offensive in the south, the occupied areas in the Caucasus had to be surrendered by Army Group A. The withdrawal movement initiated on December 31st took place in three stages, with the Kuban bridgehead being maintained until October 9, 1943, despite constant narrowing.
The Persian Gulf Command
In August 1942 the battle for Stalingrad had begun. In October 1942, American troops assumed primary responsibility in Iran. Roosevelt founded the Persian Gulf Command (PGC) under the leadership of Major General Donald H. Conolly. It replaced the British troops that were urgently needed in other theaters of war. A total of 30,000 American soldiers, engineers and specialists were busy organizing the arms deliveries to the Soviet Union through the Persian Corridor.
For the US military, the situation was as follows in December 1942: The German air force flew operations against the Allied supply convoys to Murmansk from Finnish and Norwegian airfields . In the Pacific, ships flying the Soviet flag were attacked by the Japanese navy. Another safer way to deliver the many millions of tons of material to the Soviet armed forces was through Iran. It wasn't just about guns, planes, food, clothing, and medicines. A complete automobile factory for vehicles from the Ford works was also supplied.
The world was amazed at the suddenly so successful Soviet advance against the German troops, which had been victorious up to then. That the Soviet offensive was advancing to Stalingrad with 143,000 US vehicles (trucks, command vehicles, jeeps, carrier vehicles for weapon systems - including the infamous Katyusha (rocket launchers) - light vans, tow trucks, repair, ambulance and fire engines) that came from the Persian Gulf Command were assembled in Iran and delivered to the Soviet Union is easily forgotten.
The transport ships landed in the ports of Bushehr , Khorramshahr , Bandar-e Shahpur and Basra. The transport by rail was organized from the PGC terminal in Tehran, the transport by truck in the truck terminal in Qazvin . The railway line from Bandar-e Shahpur to Tehran was a single-track railway that first ran through a desert and then through mountains. There were more than 200 tunnels on the mountain route. Since the Trans-Iranian Railway had only a few locomotives imported from Germany, built by Krupp, and a small number of wagons, diesel locomotives and wagons were brought in from the USA to increase the number of freight trains. The road connection was intended to relieve the railway and as a reserve should the railway be bombed by the German Air Force. None of the planned streets were designed for mass transport. There were also more than 1,000 hairpin bends to be negotiated in the mountains. Car workshops and spare parts depots had to be set up along the route in order to get broken down vehicles ready for use again as quickly as possible.
In May 1943, American deliveries rose to over 100,000 t per month and were thus more than ten times the British. The Persian corridor was the main route of transport for the years 1943 and 1944 in preparation for Operation Bagration , the great offensive of the Red Army on the German-Soviet front that began on June 22, 1944 . 241 shiploads with a total of 1.6 million tons of material were delivered in 1943 and 240 shiploads with 1.7 million tons in 1944. From November 1941 to May 1945 a total of 646 shiploads with 4.1 million tons for the USSR were shipped on the Persian supply route - almost 25 percent of all material going to the USSR. The possibility of moving a large part of the transports to the Iranian route reduced the losses caused by the German armed forces from 15 percent to 2 percent.
The Polish Anders Army
The Persian corridor was not only used in a south-north direction, but also in a north-south direction. After the German / Soviet attack on Poland, the Polish soldiers detained by the Soviet armed forces were held captive in Soviet labor camps. Over two million Poles were driven from their homeland by the Soviet Union and deported to far-flung republics in Asia. With the German attack on the Soviet Union, the Poles became Soviet allies. On July 30, 1941, the Sikorski-Maiski Agreement was signed in London by the Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski and the Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain Iwan Maiski . The agreement provided for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the establishment of a Polish army in the Soviet Union . According to the agreement, they were led by a Polish general and were operationally under the Soviet high command . It was referred to as the Anders Army after its commander, General Władysław Anders , who was captured by the Soviets in 1939 . By the end of 1941, three divisions had been set up near Buzuluk in Orenburg Oblast , and a fourth after the relocation to Tashkent . Since the Soviet Union was unable to adequately equip and supply these units, they were relocated via Iran to the Middle East in March 1942, in order to guard the strategically important oil fields there at the request of the British, where they were then transferred to the British Middle East Command were assumed.
Although it was agreed in the armistice negotiations that the stationed troops were not occupation troops, the Soviet troops fed themselves “from the country” by confiscating food. With the transfer of Polish troops to Iran, the already strained food supply for the Iranian population deteriorated further. “From the diaries of Władysław Anders one learns what an incredibly poor physical condition the Polish volunteers were in. The fact is that the loss of people who died due to general malnutrition, vitamin deficiency and infectious diseases amounted to well over 3,000. ”Due to malnutrition susceptible to diseases, the Iranian population was plagued by epidemics from the diseases brought in.
The Polish Jews who fled to the Soviet Union also used the Anders Army and its relocation to Iran to bring family members, and especially children, to Iran. At the end of this operation, 41,000 soldiers and 74,000 civilians were able to leave the Soviet Union. Under British command, the Anders Army was relocated to Palestine via Iraq . Many of the Jewish Poles deserted there and formed into smaller units that formed the basis of today's Israel Defense Forces (IDF) . The remnants of the Anders Army formed the basis for the formation of the 2nd Polish Corps , which was used in the Italian campaign from 1944 .
The Tehran Conference
Roosevelt saw the Persian corridor not only as a supply route to the allied Soviet Union. He had the unique opportunity to gain a permanent foothold in Iran. He immediately dispatched economics expert Arthur Millspaugh . Millspaugh was no stranger to Iran. Twenty years earlier, under Reza Shah, he had built up a modern tax and finance system. Millspaugh had been appointed by Mohammad Reza Shah as plenipotentiary for state finances, confirmed by parliament on May 4, 1943, and commissioned to bring 60 more economic experts into the country. Americans were soon to be found in all key positions in the ministries.
The Allies had now landed in Italy and were able to conclude an armistice agreement with the Italian government on September 8, 1943. On September 9, 1943, Iran gave up its neutrality and declared war on Germany. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin wanted to develop a common strategy for the decisive attack on Germany in direct talks . Tehran was chosen as the venue for negotiations with Stalin in mind. In the Tehran Conference , which took place from November 28 to December 1, 1943 , the various invasion plans and proposals for the division of Germany after the war were discussed.
On the evening of November 29, 1943, Churchill brought Stalin a gift from King George VI. It was one in Sheffield specifically for the winner of the Battle of Stalingrad -built ceremonial sword , the sword of Stalingrad. King George VI. dedicated it to the citizens of Stalingrad and all citizens of the Soviet Union. Stalin took the sword in its scabbard in his hands, kissed it and handed it to Marshal Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, who was standing next to him . The sword slipped from the marshal, however, so that it fell to the ground.
Mohammad Reza Shah, who was not invited to the conference, had one-on-one meetings with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin . The result of these talks was the tri-power declaration signed by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin on December 1, 1943, which assured Iran of territorial integrity and economic support to offset the burden of war.
The fight for the corridor - the Iran crisis
With the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, the Second World War ended. In accordance with the Tripartite Agreement, which stipulated that Allied and Soviet troops should withdraw six months after the end of hostilities, the Allies began withdrawing troops on March 2, 1946. The Soviet Union had announced that it would withdraw from Khorasan , Shahrud and Semnan , but not from Azerbaijan . Instead of withdrawing, their troops marched towards Tehran, Turkey and Iraq. Hundreds of tanks had meanwhile been brought into Iran from the south of the Soviet Union for reinforcement. Prime Minister Qavām , who was negotiating the Soviet withdrawal of troops with Stalin in Moscow, was told that Soviet troops should remain stationed in Iran for an indefinite period of time, that the Iranian government should recognize the Azerbaijan Autonomous Republic proclaimed in November 1945 and that a joint Iranian-Russian oil company should be established in which Russia has a 51% stake.
The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, founded on October 24, 1945 (Iran was a founding member), turned to the Security Council on March 20, 1946. The Soviet demands were a clear breach of international law and a violation of the Tripartite Declaration. US President Harry S. Truman turned directly to Stalin and ultimately demanded the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Iran ("Either you get out or I go in"). The Iran crisis was at its height. On March 24, 1946, Iran and the Soviet Union reached an agreement on the withdrawal of Soviet troops within six weeks. The question of recognition of the Azerbaijani People's Government should be resolved in direct negotiations. The establishment of an Iranian-Soviet oil company, which Prime Minister Qavām had promised, should be confirmed by the Iranian parliament.
In November 1946, after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the Shah, Prime Minister Qavām, General Razmara and Defense Minister Ahmadi decided to attack Azerbaijan and put an end to the Azerbaijani People's Government. On December 6th, Iranian troops marched on Tabris . On December 12th, the people's government fled with several hundred supporters across the border into the Soviet Union.
After Azerbaijan was successfully regained, the Iranian parliament refused to approve the agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Qavām with the Soviet government for the establishment of an Iranian-Soviet oil company. Iran, with US support, had achieved all of its military and political goals. The "Persian Corridor" was again in Iranian hands after the withdrawal of the Allied and Soviet troops.
In relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Iran crisis marked the beginning of the Cold War .
The Persian Corridor today
Even today, the Persian corridor has lost none of its strategic importance. Iran, Russia and India signed an agreement on September 12, 2000 in St. Petersburg to promote the "International North South Corridor" (INSTC) . Azerbaijan , Armenia , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Turkey , Ukraine , Belarus , Oman and Syria have now joined this agreement . The growing importance of the Persian corridor for the Eurasian region is expressed in the Ashgabat Agreement signed on March 23, 2016 .
Picture gallery
Selection of pictures by the painter Richard H. Jansen about the deployment of the Persian Gulf Command :
Trans-Iranian Railway
Unloading of railway spare parts
Unloading the "freedom ships"
Locals unload a ship
Web links
- http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/persian/
- http://www.parstimes.com/travel/iran/bandar_shahpur_gallery1a.html
- http://www.instc.org/Main.asp
Individual evidence
- ^ Adrian O'Sullivan: Nazi Secret Warefare in occupied Persia (Iran). Hampshire, 2014, p. 31.
- ↑ a b Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah . IBTauris 2009, p. 405.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah . UC Press 2009. p. 69.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah . UC Press 2009. pp. 69 f.
- ^ Hassan Arfa: Under five Shahs . London, 1964, p. 298.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah . UC Press 2009. pp. 67, 75.
- ↑ Gerard de Villiers: The Shah . 1975. p. 116.
- ↑ Gerard de Villiers: The Shah . 1975. p. 122 f.
- ^ Joel Sayre : Persian Gulf Command . Random House, 1945. p. 7.
- ^ Joel Sayre: Persian Gulf Command . Random House, 1945. pp. 12 f.
- ↑ Military Encyclopedic Dictionary , p. 60.
- ↑ Hans-Joachim Mau, Hans Heiri Stapfer: Under the Red Star - Lend-Lease Aircraft for the Soviet Union 1941-1945 , transpress, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-344-70710-8 .
- ^ Wolfgang hose: Armaments aid of the USA 1939-1945 , Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-7637-5475-X .
- ↑ http://www.polish-online.com/geschichte-polen/weltkrieg-polenfrage.php
- ↑ Events 1941–1942 ( Memento of the original from December 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , katyncrime.pl, accessed on June 29, 2010.
- ↑ http://www.polish-online.com/geschichte-polen/weltkrieg-polenfrage.php
- ↑ ZDF-History: The Children's Odyssey ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gerard de Villiers: The Shah . Deutscher Bücherbund 1975. S. 151 ff.
- ^ Antony Beevor: Stalingrad , 1999, ISBN 0-14-024985-0 .
- ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah . IBTauris 2009, pp. 96, 104.
