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.
The 1940 fall of France and the Battle of Britain alarmed Americans who feared that Great Britain might also fall, bringing the Axis one step closer to the United States. Eschewing direct involvement in the war, in 1940, the United States concentrated on "hemisphere defense" and began planning for airfields and air routes in the Arctic. With the fall of Denmark in April, Greenland came under U.S. protection, and an inconclusive survey for airfields was made there that summer.
With the passage of the Lend-Lease act in March 1941, large numbers of American-built aircraft were to be ferried to the United Kingdom. Joint American-British-Canadian-Free Danish efforts resulted in airfields being built or expanded in Newfoundland, in Labrador (Goose Bay), and by that summer, Greenland (Bluie West One). The British field in Reykjavík, Iceland, was expanded and supplemented by others.
Because of the urgency of the situation and heavy losses at sea, interest developed in creating an alternate air ferry route further north. It would have better weather conditions and would be on a great-circle route from the aircraft factories on the west coast. It could also serve as overflow or alternate destinations for air traffic on the southern route. For this purpose the Crystal stations (Fort Chimo, Frobisher Bay, and Padloping Island) were surveyed and begun in Labrador and Baffin Island. That October, the important airport at Bluie West Eight (Sondrestrom) was founded in Greenland.
During the Argentia summit in August, USAAF Captain Elliott Roosevelt (who had surveyed the Crystal stations) briefed the top decisionmakers on the concept for the alternate route, which was accepted and given high priority. The network was now extended to include Crimson West, extending from Edmonton to Frobisher, and Crimson East, which used new bases east of Hudson Bay.
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