WWII Persian Gulf Command

[davidbfpo]

An odd historical pointer to the journeys of a British diplomat in the Soviet zone of Persia in 1943, with a small Imperial Indian SOF escort:

It is just a moment in a little-known theatre of World War Two, but it tells us so much about the uneasy truce that existed between the Allied and Soviet occupying forces and the importance of the Persian Corridor in this global conflict.

Link:https://theconversation.com/british-empires-hidden-workings-in-india-and-iran-revealed-in-remarkable-new-film-footage-90958?

I have never heard of this Indian unit, Indian Long Range Squadron (not ILRP):

The ILRS had only just been formed, on December 25, 1941, specifically to patrol the Persian border between the Soviet Union and Baluchistan, and was modeled on the 8th Army Long Range Desert Group, the precursor to the SAS.

A very thin history:http://www.lrdg.org/Indian_Long_Range_Patrol.htm

Update: the Indian Army SOF unit was the Indian Long Range Squadron and I am preparing an article on them from on-line resources currently for a small journal 'Durbar' of the Indian MIlitary History Society.