This Day in History: 1941-08-27

The 1st Battalion, part of the force sent to defend the Anglo-Iranian oil installations on the Persian Gulf from Persian forces, crossed Shatt-el-Arab by ferry and advanced on Ahwaz, the southern railway terminus of the Trans-Iranian railway. The Regimental history reported ‘The Iranians continued to prove elusive and before contact could be established their local commander asked for an armistice [and] offered a regimental band to play the invaders into a bloodless occupation of Ahwaz’.  Click here for an account of this campaign and subsequent operations in North Africa.