the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran (August-September 1941) to secure access to Persian oil Japan's strategic offensive against the Dutch East Indies (1941-1942) to re-access embargoed oil- and rubber-resources the Wehrmacht's drive towards Baku and the oilfields of the Caucasus (Case Blue and Operation Edelweiss) in the summer of 1942 the Soviet occupation of Romania in 1944, which deprived the Axis of the important Ploesti oil-fields