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

A I R T R A N S P O R T A N D F E R R Y I N G
T h e pilots and crew members who took part in the operation had a
rough time. Many of them were inexperienced in arctic flying, and
the tension of prolonged instrument flight and the knowledge that
maps were inaccurate, that facilities were minimal, and that no search
and rescue system existed produced a mental stress that served to in-
tensify the physical exhaustion caused by long hours in the air. T h e
assumption by the Alaska Defense Command of the right to com-
mandeer any aircraft that crossed the border resulted in pilots being
kept in Alaska until their maximum flight time was reached and in
some cases exceeded; half a month’s flight time would be performed in
three days or less, and when the crews returned to Edmonton they
were an exhausted, unshaven, red-eyed lot. By the end of July the
operation tapered off and planes were being returned to normal com-
mercial operation, but several of the airlines continued to make emer-
gency flights to and through Edmonton until September.178
Following the failure of the early attempt to open an emergency
air supply service into the Southwest Pacific by way of Africa, no
further effort was made by the AAF to establish regular air communi-
cations with the area until April 1942. By that time, construction of
bases and facilities along the new South Pacific route between Hawaii
and Australia was far enough advanced to permit a scheduled trans-
Pacific operation on a small scale. While the initial service was under-
taken chiefly for the purpose of returning ferrying crews from
Australia to the United States, it also provided a means of getting a
limited quantity of badly needed supplies to the Southwest Pacific.”’
Pursuant to a directive from General Arnold to secure two of the
LB-3o’s repossessed from the British and open the service, the Ferrying
Command selected Consolidated Aircraft Corporation as the logical
operating agency.lS0Though Consolidated was an aircraft rnanufac-
turer rather than an airline, its own crews had been ferrying aircraft
to the Dutch in the Netherlands East Indies, and the company had, as
a consequence, a pool of pilots experienced in trans-Pacific flying.l8’
Regular operations began on 2 3 April 1942 when one of the LB-3o’s
was dispatched from San Diego to Australia carrying 1,900 pounds of
airplane parts, radio parts, and mail. It returned eleven days later with
twenty-two Ferrying Command pilots and other ferrying crew mem-
bers aboard. T h e regular route ran from Hamilton Field, California,
to Hickam Field, Oahu, and thence by way of Christmas Island,
Canton Island, the Fiji Islands, and New Caledonia to Australia. In
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