Crimson Route

The Crimson Route was a set of joint United States and Canadian transport routes planned for ferrying planes and material from North America to Europe during World War II. The project was ended in 1943 and never fully developed.

Overview

The 1940 fall of France and the Battle of Britain alarmed Americans who feared that England might also fall, bringing the Nazis one step closer west to the United States. Americans continued to eschew direct involvement in the war. Not so the Roosevelt Administration which devised several creative and covert means for aiding our Allies and preparing the United States for war while maintaining a façade of neutrality.

With the passage of the Lend-Lease act in March 1941, large numbers of United States manufactured aircraft were going to be ferried to the United Kingdom to assist the British in the war effort against Nazi Germany. The British had already established a network of "steppingstone" airfields in Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, and Iceland to make possible the ferrying of short-range fighters from North America to Great Britain. Many of the aircraft being sent to the United Kingdom, however, were manufactured in Southern California. This meant that the aircraft had to be flown across the United States to airfields in New England, where they would then be flown across the North Atlantic.

With the United States entry into the war being secretly planned by the Roosevelt Administration during 1941, deployments of Army Air Force combat units to Great Britain were anticipated, it was believed that the airfields in New England and Labrador would be unable to handle an ever-increasing volume of overseas movement and ferry traffic. Thus, an alternate route from the western states to the British Isles was needed.

A much shorter route could be used by flying a Great Circle Route north though central and northern Canada from from Southern California, the distance to Iceland might be cut by almost 600 miles. It was expected that much more favourable flying weather would be found than what is prevalent in Northeastern North America, that valuable experience with Arctic conditions of flight would be acquired, and that the experiment might lead to the development of a shorter airway into Russia (see: Northwest Staging Route).

Planned routes

First referred to as the "North East Staging Route" it eventually became known as the "Crimson Project" or "Crimson Route", with Crimson being the code-name for Canada. Originally there were to be three routes making up the Crimson Route: Eastern, Western and Central.

Eastern route

The Eastern route originated from Presque Isle, Maine, connecting to Labrador, northern Quebec, Upper Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit), the western and eastern coasts of Greenland, and then to Iceland, ending at Prestwick, Scotland. This route was referred to by the American military as the "North Atlantic Ferrying" or "Staging Route."

Western route

Beginning in Great Falls, Montana, this route traveled to Regina, Saskatchewan, The Pas, Churchill, Manitoba, Southampton Island and to Upper Frobisher Bay where it joined the Eastern route. This was the route that the American military directly referred to using the term Crimson Route.

Central route

Detroit, Michigan began the Central route, going to airfields at North Bay, Ontario, Kapuskasing, Moosonee, Ontario, and Richmond Gulf, intersecting with the Eastern route at northern Quebec.

Most of the Canadian airfields were newly and expressly constructed for the purpose of the Crimson Route.

History

A directive issued by the United States Chief of Staff on 24 May 1942 ordered construction of landing strips at The Pas and Churchill in Manitoba, at Coral Harbour Southhampton Island on Hudson Bay, along with weather stations and runways at Fort Chimo Quebec (CRYSTAL I), on Frobisher Bay (CRYSTAL II), and on Padloping Island (CRYSTAL III) to begin during the summer of 1942. CRYSTAL I did not lie on the line of the proposed CRIMSON route, but it was expected that the field there would make possible a useful alternate route between Goose Bay and Greenland.

The project received a severe setback late summer on August 27, 1942 when an enemy U-boat operating off the Labrador coast sank a ship carrying some 6,000 tons of cargo, including vital construction equipment intended for use at CRYSTAL I, CRYSTAL II, and Coral Harbour on Southampton Island Hudson Bay.

The winter of 1942-43 presented major problems all along the North Atlantic route. A high accident rate due to weather was experienced beginning in September 1942 and it continued to climb. On 22 November ATC suspended the transportation of passengers across the North Atlantic for the duration of the winter. The operation of two-engine transports beyond Iceland already had been forbidden. Some ferrying, chiefly of long-range aircraft, continued into December, as did the transport operations of C-54's and C-87's under contract with TWA and American Airlines, but by mid-December the North Atlantic Transport Route had been virtually closed down for the winter

ATC traffic to Great Britain was diverted to the South Atlantic. The distance to Britain by this route was double that of the projected CRIMSON route, but distance dis-advantage was eclipsed by the fact that operations that could be maintained on a year-round basis.

Efforts on another front were also productive. Prior to 1943 the Portuguese government only allowed German U-boats and navy ships to refuel in the Azores. However diplomatic efforts in 1943 persuaded Portuguese dictator Salazar to lease bases on Azores Islands to the British. This represented a change in policy and was a key turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the middle of the Atlantic. This helped allies to hunt U-boats, protect vital convoys and support mid-Atlantic Air Transport Command ferry efforts.

Thus in 1944, American US army engineers constructed a small air base on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. This new prospect in 1943 that a transatlantic route through the Azores would soon be possible brought the expensive and unlucky CRIMSON ROUTE project to an early end.

See also

• Northwest Staging Route

References

• Crystal two: The origin of Iqaluit by Robert V. Eno