With the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, a method was necessary to safely send aircraft to the United Kingdom, and later to the Soviet Union. In establishing overseas lines of supply, the United States had of necessity to rely most heavily on water transport. There was no other possible means of moving the bulk of tonnage required.
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| - Air Transport Command (United States Air Force)
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| - With the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, a method was necessary to safely send aircraft to the United Kingdom, and later to the Soviet Union. In establishing overseas lines of supply, the United States had of necessity to rely most heavily on water transport. There was no other possible means of moving the bulk of tonnage required.
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Role
| - Worldwide transport of aircraft, personnel and cargo
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Caption
| - Emblem of Air Transport Command
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Unit Name
| - Air Transport Command
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abstract
| - With the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, a method was necessary to safely send aircraft to the United Kingdom, and later to the Soviet Union. In establishing overseas lines of supply, the United States had of necessity to rely most heavily on water transport. There was no other possible means of moving the bulk of tonnage required. Britain pointed the way towards developing long-range strategic air supply routes from North America to the UK and onward to bases in the Middle East. In November 1940, a Canadian civilian agency under contract to the British government began ferrying US-built bombers across the North Atlantic from Newfoundland (Canada) to Prestwick (near Glasgow) (Scotland / UK). This was the first step in the spanning of the North Atlantic with an aerial supply bridge. The hazardous route across the North Atlantic constituted, however, only one segment of a long supply line that reached from the aircraft factories of Southern California –and other regions of the USA– to the airfields of Britain. The bombers, purchased for cash from US manufacturers prior to the passage of the Lend-Lease Act, were first ferried by factory-employed pilots from California to Montreal (Canada). There they were turned over to the civilian pilots of the British Atlantic ferrying organization for the flight to Scotland. By ferrying these bombers under their own power, vital shipping space was saved and factory-to-combat deliver time was cut from approximately three months to less than ten days.
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