South Atlantic air ferry route in World War II

The provision of war supplies from the United States to the North African theater was difficult, expensive, and time consuming. German U-boats had taken complete control of the North Atlantic Ocean routes making shipping in the North Atlantic Ocean hazardous to American warships and merchant vessels. In order to transport American soldiers and war supplies to North Africa, it became necessary to open up an air corridor between South America and West Africa. Except for a secondary route through Central Africa, this wartime air route was North of the Equator and technically, in the North Atlantic. The phrase "South Atlantic" was used then as now to differentiate this particular route from the important Newfoundland to Prestwick (Scotland) air bridge.

While Army engineers did much of the initial work on the airbases and other installations in Greenland and Iceland for the north Atlantic route, the installations for the south Atlantic route was constructed largely by civilian contractors. [cite journal |first=Charles |last=Hendricks |title=Building the Atlantic Bases |journal=Builders and Fighters |pages=36–44]

The south Atlantic air bridge was inaugurated in September 1941 with a B-24 flight from Miami to Cairo - some 10,000 miles compared to the 2,700 mile trip from Maine to Scotland. Using this route, U.S. aircraft were delivered to China, India, and the Soviet Union. When weather closed the North Atlantic air route, the South Atlantic route was used as a substitute, albeit a costly one.

Moving aircraft to the Middle East and Persian Gulf

One purpose of establishing a South Atlantic air route was to move aircraft from Florida to the Middle East and the Persian Gulf by way of Puerto Rico, Trinidad, British Guiana, Brazil, Ascension Island, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and French West Africa to North Africa and Ascension Island to the Gold Coast enroute to the Persian Gulf. Many of these bases also played a role in the Caribbean and Atlantic sectors of the North American antisubmarine defense system. American-supplied warplanes played an important role in the pivotal Egyptian battle of El-Alamein in October, 1942.

Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) was the chosen instrument for building a series of airfields in Africa capable of receiving the planes ferried across the ocean from Recife, Brazil. Besides its reputation as the world's leading airline, Pan Am already had a major aircraft servicing facility at Recife.

Liberia

Because of its proximity to South America, Liberia became the first major West African bridgehead for the South Atlantic air ferry route. The Liberian Government granted to the United States the use of its territory to store war supplies and to construct military bases in Montserrado County and Grand Cape Mount County at Fisherman's Lake. United States military supplies were collected in Florida, transported through South America to Brazil, then flown from Brazil to the military depot at Roberts Field, where 5,000 African-American troops stored and maintained the inventory. From Roberts Field, the war supplies were flown to their final destinations in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. [cite journal |first=William R. |last=Stanley |title=Trans-South Atlantic air link in World War II
journal=GeoJournal
publisher=Springer Netherlands
doi=10.1007/BF00806430
volume=33 |number=4
date=August, 1994
url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/luq322hw03n72p13/
accessdate=2007-06-23 ]

A few existing and numerous newly constructed airfields between Liberia and Khartoum served as the emergency landing, refueling, maintenance and housing sites. The Nile was followed downstream from Khartoum.

Expanding the route

Once the threat to Egypt had subsided, the Brazil—West Africa air link was expanded to include a route through Central Africa, primarily to tap a supply of uranium from what was then the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). Khartoum served a new air ferry route to British India via Aden and Karachi. Transport aircraft used in the China-Burma-India theatre of operations were supplied over this ever-expanding air link. A spur to Basra in Iraq and Tehran in Iran enabled the establishment of a secret diplomatic connection to the Soviet Union before the critical and decisive struggle at Stalingrad began in earnest. General Doolittle's surviving Tokyo raiders returned to the United States over segments of this long air route.

Legacy

Most of these airfields lost their locational significance after the war. A few, however, were to become the international airports of their country. One example is Roberts International Airport in Liberia.

References

Further reading

* Trans-South Atlantic air link in World War II GeoJournal Springer Netherlands ISSN 0343-2521 Issue Volume 33, Number 4 / August, 1994 pp. 459-463