(via the Caspian Sea) was Nowshahr. Ships ferried supplies from this port to Baku or Makhachkala. Other locations Important smaller ports and transit points on the routes included: in Azerbaijan Lenkoran; in Armenia Yerevan; in Georgia Tbilisi; in North Ossetia-Alania Beslan; in Iran Ports Bandar Anzali Bandar Abbas Chabahar Noshahr Bandar-e Shah (now Bandar Torkoman) Amir Abad port Khoramshahr Bushehr Assalouyeh Mahshahr Bandar Shahpur Fereydunkenar Cities Andimeshk Tehran Tabriz Hamadan Isfahan Karaj Khorramabad Kashan Malayer Mashad Mianeh Sari, Iran Semnan Shahroud Shiraz Tabriz Qom Zanjan Zahedan in Turkmenistan Ports Krasnovodsk Cities Ashgabat Kizyl Arvat Kizyl Atrek Personnel Cargo was principally handled by special British and American transportation units from the nations' respective combat service support branches, such as the Royal Army Service Corps and the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Many Allied civilian workers, such as stevedores and railway engineers, were also employed on the corridor. Many skilled engineers, accountants, and other professionals who volunteered or were drafted into the armed services were made warrant officers to help oversee the complex supply operations. In addition to providing logistical support to the Iranians, the Allies offered other services as well. The Americans in particular were viewed as more neutral since they had no colonial past in the country as did the British and Soviets. The Americans contributed special expertise to the young Shah's government. Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., who at the outbreak of the war was serving as superintendent of the New Jersey State Police was in August 1942 put in charge of training the Imperial Iranian Gendarmerie (his son, Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., would command coalition forces fifty years later during the Persian Gulf War.) Equipment To help operate trains on the demanding Trans-Iranian Railway route, the US supplied large numbers of ALCO diesel locomotives, which were more suitable than steam locomotives. About 3000 pieces of rolling stock of various types were also supplied. Volga River to Stalingrad Beyond the Persian Corridor and across the Caspian Sea is the Volga River, flowing into the Caspian from the north. This was a key route into the core of the Soviet Union. Stalingrad, at the easternmost turn of the Volga, was an objective of the Germans in their 1942 campaign partly for reason of its industrial capacity, partly as a convenient place to block Soviet pressure on the flank of their initiative towards the Caucasus, and partly for its name. But it was