Wednesday, April 12, 2023

ALSIB.

This is coolbert:

Lend-Lease Soviet Union the Second World War. American warplanes the aerial ferry route!

YESTERDAY and TODAY, the airfields!

"ALSIB: What the Lend-Lease airports look like today (PHOTOS)"

From https://www.rbth.com/history | HISTORY | SEPT 21 2022 | ANNA SOROKINA.

"The main air route for ferrying aircraft from the U.S. to the USSR under the Lend-Lease Act was opened in 1942. What remains today of these airports built in the Siberian permafrost?"

"The Alaska-Siberia (‘ALSIB’) air route was created for ferrying military aircraft and cargoes from the United States to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease agreement. The route was 6,500 km [about 3,900 miles] long, of which 5,000 km [about 3,000 miles] passed over Soviet territory. These kilometers posed quite a challenge: the uninhabited tundra of Chukotka and the impenetrable taiga of Siberia, very strong side winds, freezing temperatures and permafrost. Sixteen airports were built or rebuilt in such conditions, through which almost 8,000 airplanes were flown to the frontline. Afterwards, the airports were also used for civilian purposes."

I believe that the warplanes when arriving Krasnoyarsk disassembled, placed on trains and shipped further west by the Trans-Siberian railway to the theater of action, Eastern Front, WW2.

Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union during WW2 rather considerable. Military hardware and supplies sent via the northern Arctic route to Murmansk and Archangel alone enough to equip an army of 2 million men. That amount representing only 1/4 of the total sent from USA to the Soviet Union during the war!

coolbert.




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