Shipbucket

Tehran

News of the Soviet assault caused consternation in both Tehran and London. Britain considered their advance into southwestern Iran as no more than a “policing action” to protect vital British assets. The reports of the size of the Soviet forces however, made it clear than their intentions were more territorial.
The Soviet ambassador to Iran, Andrei Smirnov, arrived early to the palace as Soviet forces started pouring into Iran. The Soviets were able to provide legal legitimacy for their invasion under the terms of the Russo-Persian Treaty of Friendship. Their offensive was couched in the terms of protecting the Iranian people from “anarchists, saboteurs and fifth columnists within the Iranian military” who were bent on plunging Iran into chaos and spreading discord into the Soviet Union. Smirnov provided no room for negotiation, only relaying the Soviet line that they were protecting Iran, and giving no indication of a method for the Shah to halt the advance. The Soviets intention of conquest was obvious, but not explicitly stated.
The Shah and his council of ministers appointed General Hasan Arfa as Chief of Staff for the defence of Tehran, with immediate orders to the deploy the Central Garrison to defend the city, meanwhile the only instructions given to the Divisions in combat was a command forbidding the destruction of bridges or roads. Attacked on two sides by two foes, Britain was at least not seen as an existential threat to the Iranian nation, and tentative feelers were sent out to Bullard for a halt to combat in the southwest to allow defence of the northwest.

Bandar-e Pahlavi

Before the sun rose on the morning of the 10th the Caspian Sea Flotilla commenced bombarding Bandar-e Pahlavi, while the Iranian artillery returned fire with their 75mm field guns. With dawn the naval bombardment stopped and Soviet bombers arrived overhead. The Iranian artillery now held their fire, depriving the bombers of the ability to identify these priority targets. The anti-aircraft guns of the patrol boats were however brought to bear, damaging several aircraft, but not bringing any down. Soviet bombs still rained down on the town though the harbour facilities were deliberately spared for future Soviet use. Ten kilometres inland Soviet bombers also stuck the city of Rasht, and the barracks of the Iranian 11th Division. The air attack on Rasht broke the momentum of the 11th Division as they prepared defences around Rascht, but most importantly severed the ammunition supply line to the port at Bandar-e Pahlavi.



Once the Soviet bombers had departed, the Soviet naval bombardment recommenced, as did the Iranian counter fire. But the Iranian gunners were running low on ammunition, and by midmorning the last gun fell silent. Without the land based artillery providing protection the Soviet vessels now closed in on the harbour, making short work of the Iranian patrol boats valiantly trying to train their anti-aircraft guns on the approaching flotilla.
The Soviet vessels were all larger than those that had beached themselves the previous day at Astara and required the use of the harbour facilities to disembark their troops with any modicum of efficiency. However the Iranians had rendered most of the harbour unusable and so the Soviets could only bring one vessel at a time to dock. The Iranian 36th Infantry Regiment had formed a defensive line in a grove of forest along the beach, and were not in a position to sally forth to oppose the Soviet troops slowly consolidating their position at the port, and instead hunkered down to await the Soviet advance.
While the Soviet 47th Army were advancing rapidly through the Iranian northwest without coherent resistance, the 44th Army were struggling to place a significant force into Iran.

British Position

While Soviet troops were pouring virtually unopposed in to northwestern Iran on the 9th September, British forces were were having a much harder time in the southwest. The armoured thrust towards Kermanshah through the Paitak Pass had bogged down due to stiff resistance from the hilltops. Eventually RAF Blenheims had been allocated to the task of clearing the mountainsides, but airpower could not be deployed with accuracy against the entrenched defenders. However demoralisation was a more potent force, and as ammunition and motivation dwindled the Iranian stop force melted away into the countryside.
The port of Bandar Shahpur had been spared from the initial British attack as their forces were scrambled to respond to the evolving conflict. A small British task force only motored up the Khowr al-Musa channel on the morning of the 9th September to find the port virtually deserted. International civilian vessels had all left the port, and only local fishing boats and a deserted gunboat remained. A second gunboat had been scuttled in an attempt to block the harbour, but the British vessels were able to pass around it without difficulty. News of the British attack on Abadan and Khorramshahr had led the Iranian soldiers and sailors to abandon the town and pull back to Ahvaz.
Ahvaz itself had turned into a flaming charnel house, shadowed by thick black smoke from fires on the damaged main oil pipeline. The tanks of the 1st Pahlavi Infantry Regiment had been decimated by airpower to the west of the city, and the surviving vehicles pushed though into the narrow streets of Ahvaz. British troops had then been forced into a street by street battle fighting civilian rebels and Iranian troops as any trace of Iranian command and control broke down. East of the city British airborne troops had secured the road to Masjed-e Soleyman, closing any Iranian line of withdrawal.
Fighting through the night the British started consolidating their position in Ahvaz, as more troops were brought into the battle from Iraq. Iranian opposition also started to dwindle as ammunition and supplies started to run out. Propaganda from the former Grand Mufti and his supporters had painted the British troops as barbarous infidels, but with the majority of the British troops in country being Muslim Indians the fervour of Iranian resistance dampened as they engaged in hand-to-hand combat with their co-coreligionists.
In Tehran all that could be seen though was military defeat in every direction. The Shah raged against his generals, not without some degree of reason, but did not provide any alternate stratagem. Dread of a Soviet capture of Tehran started to spread, and the council of ministers began to consider their own personal survival. While the Shah tried again to request Britain to cease military actions, General Hasan Arfa secretly contacted Bullard to attempt to arrange an end to British hostilities without the Shah.

Soviet Invasion Of Khorasan

While the Soviets had attacked along their western border with Iran, their eastern border had remained silent. No orders had been received from Tehran, but the commanders of the Iranian 9th and 10th Divisions had taken proactive steps to protect their areas of responsibility to the best of their abilities. The 10th Division from Gorgan was probably the weakest Iranian Command, tasked with covering the expansive and largely deserted Golestan frontier. With a long featureless border squads of troops had been spread thin, to keep watch over the frontier along the Atrak River. The commander of the 9th Division, Major General Mohtashemi, deeper in country at Mashhad had considerably more men and resources at his disposal and was able to form two mobile strike groups and still leave two regiments of cavalry to defend Bojnurd in his northwest and Torbat-e Jam in his southeast.
Before dawn on the 11th September, the Soviet 53rd Army extended the conflict to the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, crossing the frontier of the Atrak River at the border post of Ashk Tappeh. Iranian border guards offered no resistance, but were able to relay word of the advance to Gorgan, but the 10th Division’s troops in their tiny pockets offered minimal resistance to the opposing force and fled. Soviet armoured cars rapidly crossed the barren country side and captured Gorgan and Gonbad-e Qabus, taking control of the Plains of Gorgan up to the Alborz Mountains.



When news of the Soviet advance reached Mashhad, Mohtashemi dispatched one of his mobile columns east to defend the strategic Mazdavand Pass against a potential Soviet advance through Sarakhs, while the other was sent northwest, with orders to engage any Soviet force advancing south from Ashkhabad, requisitioning civilian vehicles to carry troops. The quiet in Mashhad did not last long though, as Soviet bombers from Ashkhabad soon struck at the Mashhad air base in force. The Iranian 3rd Air Regiment was not able to get any aircraft into the airborne, and the force was crippled on the ground. Hangars and facilities were destroyed and Iranian air power in the east was knocked out, although fierce anti-aircraft fire brought down several Soviet bombers.
With complete air superiority Soviet aircraft ranged unmolested over northeastern Iran, and caught the east-bound mobile group on the dirt road in transit to Mazdavand. Soviet Polikarpov I-16 fighters swooped down strafing the packed trucks and buses. In short order the Iranian column was smashed, and the battered survivors turned tail and struggled back to Mashhad.



The northern column ran into the Soviet 238th Rifle Division who had already passed though the Kopet Dagh and taken the town of Quchan. Under heavy artillery fire this column also turned and fell back to Mashhad, during which most of its officers and many men deserted and disappeared from the battle zone.
Finally by evening orders came through from Tehran, ordering a withdrawal of troops for a defence of the capital. Severely depleted now by desertions and having lost most of its motorised transport Mohtashemi gathered the remains of the 9th Division and started a night march westwards towards Tehran. In Golestan the sole remaining active unit of the 10th Division, the Iranian 23rd Cavalry Regiment, also received the pullback order and evacuated their fallback position along the Gorgan Gulf to join the defence of the capital.

Writing On The Wall

The attack on Khorasan dealt a deathblow to any Iranian hope of a positive outcome to the developing conflict. The Shah ordered a meeting with his general staff and government ministers, and in fury blamed them for the poor performance of the Iranian military. General Arfa did not attend, but instead was meeting with Bullard. While the Shah was infuriated by the Iranian Majlis, the council had had enough of the Shah, and the desire to replace him and seek British protection from the Soviets had been relayed to London. Seeing co-operation with Britain as the better option than subsummation into the Soviet Union, the Iranian council of ministers and general staff were willing to stand-down in the south of the country and suffer the indignity of some degree of British occupation to maintain statehood. The Iranians had some demands though. As the Soviets advanced towards Tehran the Iranians wanted a Britain to be in possession of the city to forestall an attack. They required a flag officer and staff to be Britain’s senior officer in attendance at the palace to keep the Soviets out. But the condition to maintain the dignity of the Iranian army, the officer could not be a general, the army could not be seen to have been defeated.
London had initially been unconcerned about the events in Iran outside what they considered to be Britain’s natural sphere of influence, but the extent and rapidity of the Soviet advance were seen as a threat to the stability of Baluchistan and the rest of British India. General Arfa’s calls for not just peace but also protection provided Britain with possibly their only chance to halt Soviet expansion without coming to blows, while at the same time gaining compliance from the Iranian regime. Bullard relayed to Arfa that Britain would be willing to accept to provide assistance to Iran as long as all units in southern Iran stood down and returned to barracks and Tehran was declared an open city.
General Arfa returned to the Sa'dabad palace, and told the Shah that the conflict with Britain was over, and that he had to issue an order for the troops in the south to cease fire – but not mentioning that his reign was to end. Reza Shah erupted in rage, calling his ministers now traitors and physically hitting the general and the Defence Minister. But the Soviet threat meant that the very existence of the Iranian state was in doubt, and the Shah had no better option, and by noon the order went out to the commanders of southern Iran to cease fire. No new orders were relayed to the commands in the north, those units that were still able to accept orders were already withdrawing to defend Tehran.
In Iraq Air Vice Marshal Smart at RAF Habbaniya was still overseeing the transition of the airbase from a quiet training command to the combat hub of the British Middle East. As the RAF’s only flag officer in the region Smart leapt at the opportunity of shutting down the Anglo-Iranian conflict. Gathering together troopers of the RAF Regiment, Smart and his staff prepared an airborne mission to Tehran, using Wellington bombers as transports guarded by Blenheim fighters.
On the road to Kermanshah the Iranians sent officers forward under a white flag of truce to initiate a ceasefire, and the Curtiss fighters in the city stood down. Before dawn on the 13th September Smart’s flight of 4 Wellingtons and their escorts departed Habbaniya en route to Doshan Tappeh Air Base in Tehran.
In London Mohammad Hassan Mirza, the self-styled Shah in exile of the deposed House of Qajar, was ecstatic about the possibility of his return to Iran. He had been agitating Britain to back him for the throne since even before his brother had been deposed by Reza Pahlavi, and had been in exile in the UK for several years. Along with his son Hamid, Mohammad Hassan Mirza boarded a Short S.26M Grenadier Mk.I transport for a direct flight to the seaplane base at RAF Habbaniya.