Soldiers of 6th and 8th Indian Divisions giving the victory salute on their return to India after serving with PAIFORCE, February 1946

Photograph, World War Two, Middle East, 1946.

Persia and Iraq Force (PAIFORCE) was the British command formed to invade and subsequently occupy Iraq and Iran. In 1941 the British sent a force to Iraq to suppress a coup d'etat by elements sympathetic to Nazi Germany and then invaded Iran in conjunction with Soviet forces from the north to safeguard the oil fields. Most of the troops of PAIFORCE were Indian.

One of 233 official photographs collected by Captain Roy Wiltshire in his capacity as Editor of the Indian Army Review.