Lend-Lease History
ALSIB- Alaska Siberia
1942 - 1945
"The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party, or one nation...it must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world".
Franklin Delano Roosevelt—March 1, 1945 Address to Congress on the Yalta Conference
Photo Courtesy Alexander Dolitsky - Alaska Siberia Research Center
Lend Lease Act 1941
Lend-Lease (Public Law 77-11) was the name of the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material between 1941 and 1945 in return for, in the case of Britain, military bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and the British West Indies. It began in March 1941, over 18 months after the outbreak of the war in September 1939.
A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to nearly $700 billion at 2007 prices) worth of supplies were shipped: $31.4 billion to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France and $1.6 billion to China. Reverse Lend Lease comprised services (like rent on air bases) that went to the U.S. It totaled $7.8 billion, of which $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. Apart from that, there were no repayments of supplies that arrived before the termination date, the terms of the agreement providing for their return or destruction. (Supplies after that date were sold to Britain at a discount, for £1,075 million, using long-term loans from the U.S.) Canada operated a similar program that sent $4.7 billion in supplies to Britain and Soviet Union.
This program is seen as a decisive step away from American non-interventionism since the end of World War I and towards international involvement. In sharp contrast to the American loans to the Allies in World War I, there were no provisions for postwar repayments. However, some historians are of the opinion that it was an attempt to bolster Britain and the other allies as a buffer to prevent the necessity of America becoming involved against Nazi Germany.
ALSIB—The Northern Air Route
The Northern Route was created as a result of the Lend–Lease Act of 1941 and provided a means for ferrying military aircraft and supplies to Russia. Lend-Lease, as it became later known, was first established to aid Great Britain, in their efforts against the axis powers; primarily Germany. After Germany invaded the former Soviet Union in June 1941, the United States, in cooperation with Canada, established the air route known as the “Northern Ferrying Route.”
Before aircraft and defense materials could be ferried to Alaska, roads and intermediate airfields had to be built. In 1942, U.S. Army engineers began construction of the “Alcan Military Highway” in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The goal was to join this newly built highway with the Richardson highway at Big Delta, Alaska, which is approximately 90 miles south of Fairbanks. It took 10,000 U.S. Army officers and men and 2,000 U.S. Public Roads Administration civilians, working under Northwest Service Command (NWSC), to complete the project in 6 months. The Alcan Highway was officially opened on November 20, 1942.
Beginning at Great Falls, Montana, the complete Lend-Lease Air Route goes north to Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, and then onto to Ft. Saint John, Fort Nelson, and Whitehorse in British Columbia. Continuing westward, this route extends its way through Fairbanks and Nome, Alaska, finally ending in Siberia, Russia. This is also known as the “Alaska-Siberia Air Ferry Route” (ALSIB), a term often used for the entire route from its start in the United States to Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
The Lend-Lease program was a costly one. The air route was difficult and dangerous for both planes and pilots with the most difficult leg being the 3,500 mile journey from Fairbanks, Alaska to Central Russia. Due to its better weather conditions and geographical location, Fairbanks was selected as the official transfer point. It was also less vulnerable to attack from Germany than Nome. Once the aircraft and supplies were transferred to the Soviet pilots, they were flown to airfields near Moscow for use in the war against Germany. At the peak of the Lend-Lease program, nearly 8,000 aircraft, including bombers, fighters, transports and trainers as well as three hundred PT-27 Boeing Stearman (Royal Canadian Air Force - Winterized Version of the PT-17) were flown from the United States, through Canada, and across sub-arctic wilderness of Alaska and Siberia, Russia. 140 pilots were killed and approximately 133 aircraft were lost in the ferrying effort. The majority of accidents occurred on the flights between Siberia and Moscow.
The Lend-Lease program dramatically changed the tide of the war. Unfortunately, those who flew the planes and built the air route between the United States, Canada, the Yukon, Alaska, and eventually across Russia to the Asian Pacific, received little or no recognition.
Insignia of the US Army Air Force—Air Transport Command
Air Transport Command
On May 29, 1941 the United States Army Air Corps activated the Air Corp Ferrying Command which was in charge of all Army Air Corps aircraft ferrying operations around the world. Beneath Ferrying Command was the Domestic Division of Ferrying Command which designated six sectors in the US. These sectors were the Northeast, Detroit, Nashville, Midwest, California and Northwest Sectors. (The Northwest Sector was located at Boeing Field in Seattle). On May 28, 1942 these sectors were redesignated into groups. On June 7, 1942 the Northwest Sector became the 7th. Ferrying Group. On July 1, 1942 the Air Corp Ferrying Command was redesignated Air Transport Command.
The Air Transport Command was established in June 1942 in response to a letter sent by the Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Mr. Larry Pogue, to the White House advocating the establishment of a civilian air transportation service to operate airline contracts for the military. Pogue advocated a new organization answering directly to the White House. In response, General "Hap" Arnold of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) established an Air Transport Command under U.S. Army control and direction, primarily composed of pilots and aircraft contracted from U.S. civilian airlines. ATC's Ferrying Division was responsible for the movement of replacement of combat aircraft to overseas bases, and thousands of bombers, transports and fighters flown by combat crews on their way overseas were under ATC control during the movements. Ferrying of combat aircraft was a major ATC mission to the end of the war.
North and South Atlantic Routes
During World War II, the Soviet Union received almost 15,000 U.S.-built aircraft under the lend-lease program. About half of these were delivered by sea via the North Atlantic or were flown across the South Atlantic Ocean to the USSR via North Africa. Each method was difficult.
The North Atlantic route was subject to attack by German submarines and aircraft, and the African route suffered from exposure to desert sand, which reduced the life of engines and other aircraft components. Eventually aircraft deliveries shifted to a more direct course via Alaska to Siberia, the ALSIB route.
ALSIB Route
Almost 8,000 aircraft were ferried over the ALSIB route, usually by Air Transport Command pilots, through Great Falls, Mont., to Fairbanks, Alaska. There, Soviet pilots took over and flew the aircraft to Nome, Alaska, and then to Siberia.
Winter ground temperatures of -50 degrees Fahrenheit, the threat of being forced down in remote wilderness, hazardous flying weather, Spartan living conditions and a lack of sufficient hangar space, which sometimes forced mechanics to work outside under cruel winter conditions, made life difficult for personnel assigned to duty along the ALSIB route.
Neither the Red Army Museum in Moscow nor the Soviet Air Force Museum makes any mention of Soviet use of American aircraft during WWII or that the Western Allies even participated in that war. This is even more interesting when comparing a P-63 flight manual page from the Soviet version and the American original.
7th Ferrying Squadron—Great Falls, MT
7th Ferrying Squadron Patch from 1942
The patch worn by the WWII Lend-Lease pilots ferrying military aircraft via the Northern Ferrying Route from 1942 - 1945.
On June 22, 1942 just fifteen days after its redesignation from the Northwest Sector to the 7th. Ferrying Group, the 7th was ordered to immediately relocate to Gore Field in Great Falls Montana and begin setting up the staging base for the beginning of the Northern Lend-Lease air route to Russia. This would become the central point in which all US manufactured military aircraft bound for Russia would be staged. At the time of their move to Great Falls, the 7th Ferrying Group was composed of Headquarters and the 7th Ferrying Squadron which was responsible for most of the Lend –Lease ferrying Flights to Fairbanks Alaska.
Lend-Lease Aircraft Deliveries Over the Alaska-Siberia Route 1942-1945
(Figures Recorded at Ladd Field just east of Fairbanks, AK)
Bell P39 Airacobra - 2,618
Douglas C47 Skytrain - 710
Bell P63 Kingcobra - 2397
North American AT-6 Texan - 54
Douglas A-20 Boston / Havoc - 1,363
Curtiss P40 Warhawk - 48
North American B25 Mitchell - 732
Republic P47 Thunderbolt - 3
Curtiss C-46 Commando - 1
There is tremendous history and some great stories about the efforts of the 7th Ferrying Squadron that can be found in the book “Warplanes to Alaska” written by Blake Smith of Vancouver, BC. Blake has been a great help and resource to the BRAVO 369 Flight Foundations research into the Northern Route Lend-Lease Flights.