A I R T R A N S P O R T A N D F E R R Y I N G
the various installations by water transport and, to a limited extent,
by air. T h e transportation and storage of sufficient supplies of gasoline
alone constituted a logistical problem of considerable magnitude. Spare
parts for each type of aircraft to be ferried over the route had to be
stocked at each of the bases. With none of the stations was it possible
to maintain unhindered water communications a t all times. Goose
Bay was accessible by water only from early June to October. BW-8,
above the Arctic Circle, enjoyed a shipping season of surprising
length, being open about six months of the year. But the weather
station at CRYSTAL I11 could be reached by water for only about
six weeks of the late summer and early fall. Enemy submarines were
a constant menace along the shipping lanes, as were ice floes, heavy
fogs, and submerged reefs in uncharted areas.133
Principally because of the extreme shortage of transport aircraft,
only a limited number of personnel and a relatively small quantity of
supplies and equipment could be moved into the bases by air. But even
during the winter, the Ferrying Command was able to operate a small-
scale air transport service into Goose Bay in support of the con-
struction work. With a single C-39, the command began moving
contractor’s personnel and supplies from Moncton, New Brunswick,
to Goose Bay three days after Pearl Harbor.134In mid-February 1942,
this C-39 military service was replaced by a contract carrier service
operated by Northeast Airlines. Northeast maintained for some
months a regular service between Presque Isle and Goose Bay by way
of bases in Newfoundland and later extended its flights into Green-
land, Iceland, and Britain.135Before June, when the Eighth Air Force
began its air movement along the route, two other contract airlines
conducted survey flights and opened regular transport services over
the North Atlantic. Transcontinental & Western Air began to fly its
Stratoliners over the route in April, going all the way into Prest-
During the same month, American Airlines, under contract
to the Air Service Command, opened a service to Labrador, Baffin
Island, and G~een1and.l~’In the weeks immediately preceding the
start of the Eighth’s movement, the 60th Transport Group, a unit of
that air force equipped with C-47’s, gave considerable assistance in
moving supplies and men into the bases.‘38
Army Air Forces Headquarters, the Ferrying Command, and other
interested AAF agencies were able to. keep in touch with activities
at the bases by means of numerous survey flights sent out over the
3 47