Evening star., 1942-04-29


A LABRADOR AIR BASE
You're north of So" at this point
by good margin-and, according to
pulp writers, this is supposed to be
''the frozen wilds of Labrador" and
the land that God gave Cain"
Actually, Flying Officer T. C. Nc
Call-my constant companion and
guide on this first trip any news
paperman has been permitted to
make into these parts-agrees with
me that this is one of the most
pleasant and most beautiful places
in North America We both agree
with Wing Comdr w. c. "Packy"
McFarlane. commanding officer of
the R. c. A. F. stetion, that 1t is
destined to become resort country
and year-around vacation land.
Tens of thousands of Americans
Including bumper crops Of New
England and Sun Valley skiers-will
pass through here on their way over
the great air trade and travel routes
of the future. They will marvel, as
we marvel, at the clear, dry air, the
endless lakes and rivers, the thick
spruce forests and the stately
birches. Skiers and mountain
climbers will swoon with delight at
sight of towering snow-capped peaks
that are the northernmost projec-
ton OF the Appalachian ranges.
Weather Good in Certain Areas.
Most of all, being air travellers,
they will admire the climate, which
In certain well-defined and closely
restricted areas whose locations we
would be suckers to reveal to the
enemy, approaches that of Texas in
respect to- 100 per cent f1yable
weather. This is true even in this
backward age before most of our
knottiest aeronautical weather prob
lens have been solved.
These tricks of climate, due to
meteorological factors, which in
peacetime would make a thick book,
but rate now as military secrets,
are what put the Labrador bases
out in front as North Americas
greatest oceanic hopping-oH places.
And this is the real reason for Lab
radors sudden rise to prominence in
the North air base system. Further
more, Labrador is on the Great
Circle air route to Europe for every
thing west Of Pittsburgh. This
means that for the Eastern United
States seaboard the base is prac-
tically on course, airline, for the
~
Central Asia-one of the great air
trade and travel routes of the future.
For the immediate future, this
unusual combination of climate and
geographical position makes Lab
rador an ideal ferry base on the
America Britain run for bombers
and even short-range fighters, fly
ing via Greenland and Iceland.
Given only a slightly improved de-
velopment in the ranges of heavy
bombers and troop-carrying gliderS
and 1t puts North America within
direct offensive striking distance of
Hitler's Norwegian coast.
Vulnerable No Longer.
But airplanes can travel both
ways. and Labrador, prior to the
installations of the last few months,
was probably Americas most vul-
nerable sector, from an invasion
standpoint. Labrador might have
fallen, year ago, to 1000 air troops.
Prepared airports would not have
been necessary. The great Labrador
lakes and river valleys would have
made ideal invasion fields a little
earlier this season. BY day tenn
peratures 60 to so degrees or so in
the Labrador spring. BY night they
fall again, to 10, Is, 20 below. This
nightly freezing process converts the
melted snow surfaces to ice fields of
glacierlike hardness, on which the
largest transports and bombers
could make beautiful ski landings.
They could even make wheel land
ingS, as the Nazis did In Norway
under similar conditions.
Once in. it would be difficult to
dislodge such a force from its in
vasion foothold on the North Amer
lean continent. Should such a blow
be struck in conjunction with North
Atlantic naval operations in which
Hitler employed his own and the
Vichy fleet, plus perhaps a simuIta-
neous air assault on Iceland and
Greenland, it might mean our loss
OF the war.
This threat can be discounted
now. We are prepared, in Labrador,
and in Newfoundland. as we were
not a year ago, or even three months
ago. Moreover, this is the season
Of the great breakup. No longer do
the early morning freezeups occur to
provide ideal landing fields. Not
again until midsummer will terrain
conditions be stabilized.
Better Climate Inshore.
But the whole notion OF the Far
North as an impenetrable ice barrier
against invasion must be drastically
revised in this age of air war. Lab
rador Is perfect case in point. 1t
got its reputation as a land of frozen
wastes in an era of sea transport.
From the mariners viewpoint, the
reputation was justified. The ia
nous Labrador Current, sweeping
southwark from the Arctic icecap.
keeps the Labrador coast perennially
barren and ice locked Along the
coast, practically the year around,
Labrador is indeed a forbidding
waste of bald-rock and Icy desola-
ton.
But get in an airplane, and fly
into the interior, as we have done
on this trip. Observe the heavily
wooded river valleys, and the friend
ly, inviting surfaces of the frozen
lakes and rivers Here it was pos
sible for a construction gang of
hundreds of men to live in tents