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Rumors depict how he all alone with a Maxim machine gun defeated and killed scores of bandits in the remote countryside of Iran. This was before he became Shah of Persia. The title used for him during the Pahlavi monarchy was "Reza Shah the Great" (Reza Shah-e Kabir) He was accused by the Americans and British to be pro-German, and had been "ordered" to abdicate. When he refused, the British airforce and navy attacked and bombarded southern Iran, while the Red Army of the Soviet Union invaded from the north. Iran was occupied by the Soviets in the north and by the British in the South throughout the war. Reza Shah was arrested and died shortly after in house arrest on the Island of Mauritius (South Africa) on July 26, 1944. Whatever one may think of him, most people would probably agree that he can be credited with that he within a very short period of time substantially transformed Iran into a largely modern country.
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