By no means least among the achievements of the Army Air Forces (AAF) in World War II was its development of a worldwide system of air transport. The development of transport aircraft in the 1920s and 1930s added a new dimension to the art of warfare, and around its varied capacities the AAF built an air transportation system such as had never before been envisaged. That system, and its functions, soon became synonymous with the organization which controlled it, the Air Transport Command.
Origins ATC's origins begin during World War I with the need to transport aircraft supplies and materiel from the aircraft manufacturers to the maintenance facilities supporting the training bases in the United States. Railroads were used to move the equipment and aircraft from one base to another and to the Ports of Embarkation along the East Coast for subsequent sea shipment to the battlefields of France. It wasn't until the 1920s that the development of cargo and personnel transport aircraft began with aircraft such as the
Boeing Model 40. From 1926 until 1942, the Air Corps’ logistical responsibilities were vested in the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps Materiel Division, with headquarters at Wright Field, Ohio and with four major depots (at
Sacramento, California;
San Antonio, Texas;
Fairfield, Ohio; and
Middletown, Pennsylvania) distributed over the United States. In the early 1930s, the Air Corps began formally experimenting with the systematic use of air transport for the distribution of aviation supplies. The Materiel Division in 1932 established a provisional
1st Air Transport Group with four transport squadrons, each of them equipped with
Bellanca Aircruisers and
Douglas DC-2s, intended to serve one of the four major air depots in the distribution of spare parts to Army airbases. The group, redesignated the
10th Transport Group in 1937, also transported supplies from one depot to another. Curtiss P-36 Hawks, and some Curtiss P-40D Warhawks, although the P-40s were never delivered. However, it was Britain's
Royal Air Force which needed massive reinforcement, especially after the losses it incurred on the continent during the German invasion of the Low Countries and France during May 1940. The idea of developing a regular military service for
ferrying aircraft was the result of several factors. Production of aircraft by United States manufacturers was increasing for both the Army Air Corps and for purchase by the British. As produced and ready for delivery at the factory, these aircraft were flyable but also needed modifications before they were ready for combat service. It was advantageous to fly the aircraft to a separate modification center where changes could be made, rather than implementing these changes on the production line that would interrupt production. Ferrying Command relied initially on two-engine and single-engine pilots detailed from the Air Force Combat Command (formerly
GHQ Air Force) for thirty- to ninety-day tours of temporary duty. More highly qualified four-engine pilots of the Combat Command, as well as navigators and other crew members, were borrowed to fly the trans-Atlantic transport shuttle. In the summer and fall of 1941, approximately 200 pilots were trained at
Barksdale Field,
Louisiana, especially for ferrying duty, although they were assigned to the Combat Command and served, as did the others, on temporary-duty status with the Ferrying Command. To ferry aircraft purchased by the
Royal Air Force (RAF) from factories in the western and central United States to transfer points on the Atlantic seaboard required the establishment of routes over which the aircraft could be flown. Support stations were set up at civilian as well as military airports for the aircraft to be refueled and any necessary servicing performed. The aircraft factories, particularly the
Boeing factory near
Seattle and the Southern California plants of
Lockheed,
Consolidated,
Douglas,
North American and
Vultee required a series of organizations to accept the aircraft from the manufacturer, and provide a ferrying crew to transport the aircraft. Indeed, a limited view of the role of long-range air transportation in World War II persisted for some months after the US became an active belligerent. Not until the late spring and summer of 1942, when large backlogs of supplies awaiting air shipment to the front began to build up at ports of embarkation and when it became clear that almost unlimited demands would be made in future for the rapid movement of urgently needed materials and personnel, did the idea of air transport as a major instrument of logistics begin to take shape. The ferrying activity continued to increase as more aircraft were turned out by the factories, as new combat units became ready for deployment overseas, and as the need for battle replacements grew more and more emphasis came to be placed on the air transportation function. Air transport had passed beyond the stage of being primarily a courier service or an adjunct of ferrying; it was well on the way to becoming a major instrument of logistical support to combat operations on the ground and in the air. Until 1944, ATC also drew heavily on the airlines for manpower, using experienced civil airline pilots, radio operators, and other aircrew personnel from the airlines to crew transports that had been purchased by the Army from civilian sources. At the time it was redesignated and given its enlarged mission, the command was already in the process of reorganization. In 1942, at the personal request of General 'Hap' Arnold,
C. R. Smith, formerly president of
American Airlines, was commissioned a colonel in ATC and made its executive officer, thereafter assuming the positions of Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander. During his tenure as Chief of Staff, Smith was largely responsible for ATC's considerable expansion in operations. As the war progressed, ATC received improved aircraft types for transport duty, including the Curtiss-Wright
C-46 Commando and the Douglas
C-54 Skymaster, a militarized transport version of the DC-4. The C-54 in particular took over the C-87's duties in long-distance, over-water transport flights. In the China-India theater, the C-54, with nearly five times the load capacity of the C-47 and twice that of the C-46, significantly increased cargo tonnage levels flown to China, becoming the primary lifter for Hump operations. By the end of World War II, Air Transport Command had developed into a huge military air carrier with a worldwide route pattern. From an organization of approximately 37,000 personnel (6,500 of them overseas) in December 1942, it numbered nearly 210,000 in August 1945, the bulk stationed overseas (150,000). By the end of the war the command had 3,090 major transports assigned. Although in the first half of 1944 the C-46 appeared to be headed for ascendancy as the predominant transport type of the command, and ATC more than tripled its inventory of C-54s in the final year of the war to 839 transports, the C-47 remained the workhorse transport of ATC throughout the conflict, never exceeded in total by any other type. Its numbers remained steady throughout 1942 and 1943, but increased dramatically in the last 18 months of the war, rising to a total of 1,341. When the
United States Air Force was established as a separate service in 1947, the Air Transport Command was not established as one of its missions. The ATC commander and his staff took it upon themselves to convince the new civilian leadership of the newly created
Department of Defense (DOD) (and Secretaries of the Army and Air Force) that ATC had a mission. They seized upon testimony by former Troop Carrier Command commander Major General
Paul Williams that the Air Force should have a long-range troop deployment capability, and began advocating that ATC transports could be used to deploy troops. Williams had been pressing for the development of a long-range troop carrier airplane when he made his statement.
Major Components Ferrying Division Established 1 July 1942, to replace the Domestic Wing, Army Air Forces Ferrying Command, established 28 December 1941 as the
Domestic Division ACFC and redesignated
Domestic Wing, AAFFC on 26 February 1942. Initially conducted aircraft ferrying operations within the
United States ("
Zone of the Interior") in six regions. The division was reorganized 22 October 1944 into three component ferrying wings (East, West, and Central). The Ferrying Division absorbed the Domestic Transportation Wing (created March 1943 for military passenger and cargo service within the ZI) on 27 November 1944. Operated primarily by civilian contract pilots, including the
Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), the Ferrying Division moved aircraft and parts from manufacturing plants in the United States to and between various training bases within the US and to Ports of Embarkation for overseas shipment (
Hamilton Field,
California; Morrison Field,
Florida;
Presque Isle Field,
Maine; and
Anchorage-Elmendorf Field,
Alaska). From the Ports of Embarkation, aircraft were flown to final overseas destinations primarily by contracted civil airline pilots or former airline pilots serving in the AAF. The ATC Ferrying Division was also responsible for the preparation for and movement of combat units overseas and for the movement of replacement aircraft and crews, who were temporarily assigned to the ATC Ferrying Division from the time they left the United States until they arrived at their assigned theater.
Air Transportation Division Established 28 December 1941 as the
Foreign Division, ACFC; redesignated
Foreign Wing, AAFFC on 26 February 1942; redesignated
Air Transportation Division 1 July 1942. The division was dissolved in March 1943 and its wings placed directly under command of Headquarters ATC. ;North America • Alaskan Wing (redesignated
Alaskan Division on 1 July 1944) : Established October 1942. Supported
Eleventh Air Force in
Alaska and the
Aleutian Islands. Controlled the Alaska-Siberia Route (
ALSIB) to transport airborne lend-lease aircraft and support material from the
Minneapolis, Minnesota and
Great Falls, Montana via Central and Western
Canada to
Ladd Field, Alaska, where Soviet pilots collected the aircraft to fly them westward to air bases in
Siberia. Also operated transport route into
Northern Canada. ;Central/South America • Caribbean Wing (established as 27th AAF Ferrying Wing 19 June 1942; redesignated
Caribbean Wing on 1 July 1942; redesignated
Caribbean Division on 1 July 1944) : Transported aircraft, personnel and cargo from
South Florida airfields (Morrison Field) to
Waller Field,
Trinidad over the South Atlantic Route. During World War II, over 16,000 tactical and cargo aircraft transited this route, carrying over 100,000 crew personnel and passengers. Also operated transport routes to
Havana, (Cuba);
Nassau, (Bahamas); and
Sixth Air Force Caribbean lend-lease bases, and to
Panama and
Puerto Rico. Also operated an aircraft ferrying route between
Brownsville,
Texas and the
Panama Canal Zone via
Mexico and
Central America. From
Howard Field,
Panama Canal Zone, it flew a route to the
Galapagos Islands and along the west coast of
South America to
Salinas, Ecuador and to
Talara, (Peru). • South Atlantic Wing (established as 24th AAF Ferrying Wing 27 June 1942; redesignated
South Atlantic Wing on 1 July 1942; redesignated
South Atlantic Division on 1 July 1944) : Responsible for operating the South Atlantic Route from Waller Field, Trinidad along the north-eastern coast of
South America to
Natal (Brazil) and from there across the
South Atlantic Ocean via
Ascension Island to
West Africa. It also operated routes along the eastern coast of Brazil to
Montevideo (Uruguay) and to
Asunción (Paraguay). ;Europe • North Atlantic Wing (established as
23d AAF Ferrying Wing 20 June 1942; redesignated
North Atlantic Wing on 1 July 1942; redesignated
North Atlantic Division on 1 July 1944) : Operated North Atlantic Route for aircraft, personnel and cargo from Presque Isle AAF to
Prestwick Airport, Scotland, via
Greenland,
Iceland or directly from
RCAF Station Gander and
Stephenville Air Base in
Newfoundland. Operated transport routes to
Goose Air Base in
Labrador and onward to bases in
Greenland. In 1945, it operated a transport route from Iceland to
Oslo,
Norway, and to
Stockholm,
Sweden. • European Wing (redesignated
European Division on 1 July 1944) : Created in July 1941 at
Prestwick Airport (Scotland) as a courier service. Received aircraft flown from the United States across the North Atlantic Route. On 19 June 1942, it took over the transatlantic operations from
TWA and
Northeast Airlines at Prestwick to ferry passengers to the
European Theater. Established January 1943 as
European Wing. It served as the operational component of ATC in Europe. Initially, it flew transport operations from the United Kingdom to Spain and Portugal, later on also to
French Morocco. Clandestine transport operations were also made into
Occupied Europe and to
Scandinavia in 1943. Routes were established into
France in 1944 and throughout
Occupied Germany,
Italy and to the
Balkans and
Greece in 1945. • Atlantic Wing : Operated the Mid-Atlantic Route from the Eastern United States (
New York City,
Washington DC,
Miami) to
Bermuda and on to the
Azores /
Portugal to ferry aircraft to
England from early 1943. Later operated routes from the Azores to Portugal and
France to provide connections with intra-European routes after 1944 as part of the North Atlantic Division. ;Africa/Middle East • Middle East Wing (established as 26th AAF Ferrying Wing 27 June 1942; redesignated 1 July 1942 as
Africa-Middle East Wing; redesignated June 1943 as
Middle East Wing) : Delivered lend-lease aircraft, personnel and cargo from
Cairo, Egypt to destinations in the Middle East. Operated the Eastern Mediterranean Route via
Lydda (British-Mandated Palestine) and Beirut (Lebanon) to
Adana (Turkey. It also ferried lend-lease aircraft to
Tehran (Iran) for onward shipment to
Russia via
Baku. A connecting route linked
Baghdad (Iraq) with
Karachi, India, along the
Persian Gulf coast. • Central African Wing (redesignated
Central African Division on 1 July 1944) : Established June 1943 from a split of the Africa-Middle East Wing with headquarters in
Khartoum,
Sudan. Responsible for moving aircraft, personnel and cargo from West African transport hubs over the Trans-Africa Route via Khartoum to
Cairo (Egypt) and to
Aden (South Arabia) and on to
Karachi (India). This was discontinued when the route along the coast of
West Africa from
Dakar (Senegal) to
French Morocco became available in 1943. Also operated a transport route to
Leopoldville (Belgian Congo) for the transport of
uranium to the United States. This route was later extended to
Pretoria (South Africa Rep.) via Elizabethville (Belgian Congo). • North African Wing (redesignated
North African Division on 1 July 1944) : Established June 1943 from a split of the Africa-Middle East Wing. Moved aircraft, supplies and cargo from West African transport hub supporting
Twelfth and
Fifteenth Air Forces. Also part of South Atlantic Route transport extension via West Africa to
Casablanca (French Morocco) and to
Britain. Operated the Mediterranean Air Transport Service from
Casablanca (French Morocco) to
Cairo (Egypt) and later from
Algiers (Algeria) to
Naples (Italy) in 1944. ;Pacific/CBI Theater • Pacific Wing (established as 25th AAF Ferrying Wing 27 June 1942; redesignated
South Pacific Wing on 1 July 1942; redesignated
Pacific Wing in January 1943; redesignated
Pacific Division on 24 July 1944) : Operated the South Pacific Air Route from
Hamilton Field, California via
Hickam Field, Hawaii to either
Brisbane or
Williamstown, Australia, via
Nadi,
Fiji and
Noumea,
New Caledonia for cargo and passengers. Later on, links were established with
New Zealand and via
Honiara, Solomon Islands with
Hollandia and
Biak, Dutch East Indies. •
India-China Wing (redesignated
India-China Division on 1 July 1944.) : Established 1 December 1942. Responsible for transport operations across the
Himalayan Mountains ("
The Hump") between airfields in India and China, formerly performed by the 10th AF India-China Ferrying Command, and operated a western Indian sector in Karachi. Responsible for the materiel support of the
Fourteenth Air Force in
China and of the
Tenth Air Force operations. Four component wings in ICD: Assam Wing (activated 1 July 1944); India Wing (1 July 1944); Bengal Wing (1 December 1944); China Wing (1 December 1944) • West Coast Wing : Established January 1943 from a split of the South Pacific Wing. Operated a transport route from
Seattle, Washington to Elmendorf AAF, Alaska, along the coast of
British Columbia primarily to deliver
Boeing aircraft to Alaska. Component of Pacific Division 1 August 1944. • Central Pacific Wing (activated 1 August 1944, Pacific Division) : Operated route from Hawaii via
Marshall Islands to
Mariana Islands for logistical support for
Seventh and
Twentieth Air Forces in the
Marianas. The route was later extended to
Manila, Philippines;
Okinawa; and lastly to
Tokyo, Japan in 1945. A transport route was established from Manila to
Kunming, China. • Southwest Pacific Wing (activated on 1 August 1944, Pacific Division) : Logistical support for
Fifth and
Thirteenth Air Forces in
New Guinea and later to the
Philippines. • Eastern Pacific Wing (activated on 10 April 1946) • Western Pacific Wing (activated on 10 April 1946) : Postwar reorganization of Pacific transport routes within
Far East Air Force connecting Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan.
Installations ;
Gore Field, Great Falls, Montana :
7th Ferrying Group : 557th Army Air Forces Base Unit : Embarkation Base, Alaska Route ;
Hamilton Field, California : Headquarters ATC Pacific Division, West Coast Wing : 18th Ferrying Group : 1503d Army Air Forces Base Unit : Embarkation Base, Pacific Route : 1103d Army Air Forces Base Unit : Embarkation Base, South Atlantic Route : Embarkation Base, North Atlantic Route : North Atlantic Route Staging Base : Staging Base for RAF Sales : North Atlantic Route Staging Base : Alaska Route Staging Base, also RAF Sales to Canada. Planned "
Crimson Route" Embarkation Base (never developed) : ATC 5th Replacement Training Unit : ATC 6th Replacement Training Unit : ATC 2d Operational Training Unit : ATC 3d Operational Training Unit : Embarkation Base, Alaska Route : Also known as the
Northwest Staging Route. List of ATC stations located in Canada and the Alaska Territory, originating at
Great Falls Army Air Base, Montana and
Wold/Chamberlain Field, Minnesota; terminating at
Ladd Army Airfield, Alaska Territory. Ladd is where Soviet pilots took over the ferrying mission into the Soviet Union •
Caribbean Route : Part of the
South Atlantic Air Ferry Route. List of ATC stations in the Caribbean, originating at Morrison Field, Florida; terminating at
Atkinson Field, British Guiana. •
Central African Route •
Mid-Atlantic Route : Established in 1943 after the Portuguese government allowed British Leases in the
Azores. Flown by long-range C-54s fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks only from Morrison Field, Florida via
Kindley Field, Bermuda, across the Atlantic to one of three RAF airfields in the Azores. Then connected to
Anfa Airport, Casablanca, French Morocco. •
North Pacific Route : Flown by the
West Coast Wing between
Gray Army Airfield, Washington along the British Columbian Coast to
Elmendorf Field, Alaska then on to
Alexai Point Army Airfield in the
Aleutian Islands. •
North Atlantic Route : Flown by the
North Atlantic Wing, direct ferrying route between the Northeast United States and the United Kingdom. Originated at
Presque Isle Army Airfield, Maine, routed to ATC bases in
Newfoundland to
Greenland to
Iceland to
Prestwick Airport, Scotland. •
South Pacific Route : Flown by the
Pacific Division, began at
Hamilton Field, California and initially to
Hickam Field, Hawaii. Pr-war it went via
Midway Island and
Wake Island and
Guam to
Clark Field in the Philippines. With the Japanese conquests in the Western Pacific in 1942, the route was changed into be a supply route to
Australia, with several routes cries-crossing the Pacific, and eventually returning to the Philippines and after the end of the war to
Tokyo where an extension of the India-China Route allowed a complete circumnavigation of the world. ==References==