the allied supply efforts were enormous. the americans alone delivered over 16.3 million tonnes to the soviets during the war, via three routes, including the arctic convoys to the ports of murmansk and archangelsk. also, soviet shipping carried supplies from the west coast of the united states and canada to vladivostok in the far east, since the soviet union was not at war with japan until august 1945. the persian corridor was the route for 4,159,117 long tons (4,225,858 metric tonnes) of this cargo. however, this was not the only allied contribution via the persian corridor. about 7,900,000 long tons (8,000,000 metric tonnes) of shipborne cargo from allied sources were unloaded in the corridor, most of it bound for the ussr - but some of it for british forces under the middle east command, or for the iranian economy, which was sustaining the influx of tens of thousands of foreign troops and polish refugees. also, supplies were needed for the development of new transportation and logistics facilities in persia and in the soviet union. the tonnage figure does not include transfers of warplanes via persia.