The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1
perial forces in Africa and India, as well as to the Russians and Chinese.
The United States undertook not only to deliver these aircraft to such
transfer points as were agreed upon but also to provide stocks of spare
parts, certain forms of maintenance work, and such transition training
as was required to familiarize Allied pilots with the operation of the
planes.
Until late 1942, when all ferrying operations over the southeastern
route were militarized, the great majority of lend-lease aircraft that
were delivered overseas by air were flown to their destinations by
civilian crews of Pan American Air Ferries. Although the Pan Ameri-
can Air Ferries contract had been drawn up in August I 941, deliveries
did not exceed ten a month until February of the following year. The
intervening time, however, had not been wasted. Throughout the fall
and winter the organization had been busy recruiting and training
flight and ground personnel in preparation for a greatly enlarged
operation as soon as the aircraft began coming from the factories in
quantity. As in the case of pre-Pearl Harbor deliveries, most of the
aircraft ferried out by Pan American crews during the winter of
1941-42 were two-engine transports destined for the British or for
Pan American Airways-Africa. An unusual assignment had been
undertaken in December and January when four PBY flying boats,
carrying loads of .50-cal. machine-gun ammunition, were ferried by
way of the South Atlantic to the Dutch in the Far
Deliveries began to pick up in March with the arrival a t the Florida
staging point of the first numbers of a consignment of seventy-two
lend-lease €3-z 5’s to the Russians.loOConsiderable work was required
a t Morrison Field in putting these two-engine bombers in shape for
overseas flight. They were then turned over to Pan American Air
Ferries crews who flew them first to the Pan American base a t Miami
for final flight checks and organization into flight echelons prior to
take-off. For several months nearly all of the B-25’s were flown from
Miami to Africa and thence to British airfields near Basra, Iraq, where
they were carefully inspected, flight-tested, and prepared for transfer
to Soviet representatives. In June, because of the crowded condition
of the air bases on the Persian Gulf, the majority of the planes were
routed through Habbaniya direct to Tehran and were there taken
over by the Russian pilots.lol Between March and the end of 1942,
a total of I O Z B-25’s were flight-delivered to the Russians over the
southeastern route. Though most of these were ferried by civilian
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