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The Air Ferry Routes of WWII, including North Atlantic Route, South Atlantic Route and South Pacific Route. Although many air route surveys of the North Atlantic had been made in the 1930s, by the outbreak of World War II in Europe, civilian trans-Atlantic air service was just becoming a reality. It was soon suspended in favor of military ...
Before Ferry Command, only about a hundred aircraft had attempted a North Atlantic crossing in good weather, and only about half had made it. [ citation needed ] Over the course of the war, more than 9,000 aircraft were individually ferried across the ocean and the aircraft played a significant role in the outcome of the war.
Personnel at work in the Operations Room of the Atlantic Ferry Service at RAF Prestwick. During the Second World War, Prestwick was used an eastern terminus for the North Atlantic air ferry route, one of a series of routes over which military aircraft were ferried from the United States and Canada to Great Britain, to support the war in Europe.
Name Location Coordinates Notes Presque Isle Army Airfield: ME Chief port of embarkation for U.S. aircraft flying the North Atlantic. Headquarters, 23d AAF Ferrying Wing, Ferrying Command 12 June 1942; re-designated North Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command, 11 February 1944; Redesignated North Atlantic Division, ATC, 27 June 1944.
Liverpool to the Atlantic Ocean 7 September 1939 21 July 1941 345 merged with OA convoy in the southwest approaches - ON and OS convoys replaced OB convoys ON Methil, Fife to Bergen: 1939 1940 PW Portsmouth to Wales: SD Iceland to River Clyde: military ferry service SG Southend-on-Sea to Grimsby: 1940 1940 SILVERTIP
During World War II the United States had to move large numbers of aircraft to the European and Mediterranean Theaters via the North Atlantic ferry route, a series of short flights between Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and the UK. Weather conditions in winter closed the route and made crossing perilous at any time.
Operating as it did under wartime conditions, Transport Command had a relatively high accident rate. Prominent accidents included a July 1943 crash at Gibraltar, killing the Polish leader General Sikorski and several other senior figures in the exile government; a February 1945 crash in the Mediterranean, killing eleven members of the British delegation to the Yalta Conference; and a March ...
The North Atlantic battle surrounding it in May 1943 is regarded as the turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. The battle ebbed and flowed over a period of a week, and involved more than 50 Allied ships and their escorts, and over 30 U-boats. It saw heavy losses on both sides.