Another Big War Project in Alberta

I am really enjoying my second reading of a great book I bought from a Goodwill store in Seattle, WA entitled, "Warplanes to Alaska" by Blake W. Smith. The subject of the book is the very well kept secret mission during WWII which saw thousands of American warplanes funneled through Alberta on their way to Russia to help their war effort. I have to admit that I only learned in recent years about the Lend-Lease program which also was known as the ALSIB (Alaska-Siberia) route, the Northwest Staging Route (the name given to the airway by the Canadians), the Northwest Ferry Route or to most of the U.S. Army Airforce simply "The Pipeline". The route officially began at Great Falls, Montana at Gore Field (now Great Falls International) where aircraft from manufacturing plants in the midwest and California would gather for a thorough once over before being sent up the "pipeline". The program's airfields and airstrips stretched like a string of aeronautical pearls through Alberta, crossing through a little slice of northern British Columbia, on to the southern part of the Yukon territory and then across Alaska to Nome where Russian pilots would take delivery of the planes for the flight to the eastern front.

The route was a hastily created collection of airports and airstrips that followed the Rocky Mountains on the eastern slopes where the weather and terrain were a little more forgiving to pilots who would essentially be pioneering what had until recently been a frontier of remote trap lines, beautiful but remote region and mostly uncharted mountains and rivers. In little more than a year this once unexplored route would be dotted with landing strips carved by the brute force of bulldozers who blazed a slow trail through the wilderness. These bulldozer trains carried  behind them sleds containing all the supplies they would need to create the many places fliers would flock to in low visibility conditions or when the cold weather got the better of the aircraft and forced the crews to land immediately.

Alberta airports in the ALSIB route (from south to north) included Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton (now known as Edmonton City Centre or formerly as the "Muni") and Grande Prairie. Lethbridge was the point of entry for Canadian sovereignty and a busy airport in its own right as the Alberta stopping point on Trans Canada Airlines Trans-Canada mainline route and also home to #8 Bombing and Gunnery School of the BCATP. The Americans built a repair and refueling facility on a quarter section of land at the Calgary airport which was home to # 37 Secondary Flying Training School (R.A.F.). The facility was located on the west side of the airport, across from the hangars for #37 S.F.T.S. and the terminal building which were both located on the east side of the airport. The largest American presence in Alberta for the ALSIB route was at Edmonton where they built a massive series of hangars on the north side of the aerodrome for final inspection and major repair to aircraft that would soon be leaving the relative comfort of the populated prairie lands for the desolate and rugged territory that lay ahead on the way to Alaska. In the final year of the program, the Americans built an entirely new airport complete with concrete runways and a multitude of hangars and support buildings north east of Edmonton and called the base Namao.\

A series of radio ranges were strung along the route to help the aviators navigate in less than perfect weather.
Though a relatively new technology , the ranges were critical to keeping the aircraft navigating safely around the near ever present high terrain and mountains that accompanied the route from Grande Prairie to its terminus.

It must have been impressive for citizens of Alberta to see the once wide open skies of their home filled with every manner of military aircraft between the hundreds of training aircraft of the BCATP and the multitude of bombers, fighters and cargo planes of the Lend Lease program. The drone of so many powered aircraft must have also reminded Albertans of the vital role their backyard was playing in the effort to bring WWII to a successful close for the Allied Forces.