Original Item. Only One Available. This is a stunning theater-made lighter named to Lieutenant James Carl Speck, who served with the Persian Gulf Command with the 363rd Engineer Battalion during World War II.

The lighter is enameled with the Corps of Engineers Castle in a blue enamel square with 363 under it, for the 363rd Engineer Battalion. On the cap is his name, JAMES C. SPECK. On the other side is the black enamel Persian “Lion and Sun” featuring a lion holding a Persian sword, and below that is the green and red enameled insignia of the Persian Gulf Command. The lighter is in great service-used condition with burn marks at the tip of the wick. The lighter measures 1½ x ½ x 2⅛”.

This is a fantastic piece of WWII history, with eye-catching enamel coloring and virtually no damage. Ready for further research and display!

The Persian Gulf Command was a United States Army service command established in December 1943 to facilitate the supply of US lend-lease war material to the Soviet Union, through the "Persian Corridor". The Persian Corridor was a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II.

This supply route originated in the US and UK with ships sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to the Persian Gulf. From there, the materiel transited Iran to the USSR. Other supply routes included the Northern route across the Arctic, and the Pacific route which handled US cargo at Vladivostok and then used the Trans-Siberian Railway across the USSR. This Persian Route became the only viable, all-weather route to be developed to supply Soviet needs.