Evening star., 1942-06-12
Aerial Supply Route
Brings Modern Life
Close 10 Africa
Landing Fields Hacked
From JuneIes; Malaria
Scourge Is Beaten

Scouree Is Beaten
Special Dispatch to The Star and MANA.
SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA (By
Airmail Ever since last summer
when the United States Government
and Pan American Airways COM
bined forces to establish wartime
aerial supply route across the gi-
gantic continent, Goth century civili-
zation has been bringing sweeping
changes to the old Africa of impaS-
sable jungles and uninhabitable
deserts
In setting up a high-Speed air
transport service between the west
coast of Africa and the Near East,
American engineers have modern
lied entire sections of the dark con-
tinent almost overnight.
Until the war is won this transport
airline will concentrate on carrying
men and materiel to war combat
areas, At the same time. however,
Africa is getting face lifting so re-
markable and with such speed that
those who saw this land only as late
as last summer would not recognize
parts of it today Airports have
been hacked out of the solid jungles
In less than four months by Swarms
OF black-skinned natives, clad in G.
strings, as we'll as by hugh bull
dozers. Camps have been built deep
IN the interior which are comparable
to any Army camp in the United
States.
One serious obstacle which the
Pan American engineers had not
faced in IA years of pioneering
routes was the dread malarial fever.
Last fall when the engineers began
work on the African air line, one
out Of every three men fell a victim
to malaria and had to be treated
either In some makeshift medical
center or in one of the few British
hospitals.
Pure Water Assured.
Then Pan Americans medical staff
was rushed to this front" Wells
were drilled, clorinaters installed, a
modern sewage system introduced,
thereby lnsurlng a pure water sup
ply at each camp. Entire villages
were enlisted to clean the stagnant
pools, breeding places of the malaria
mosquito. Around one camp alone
more than 40 miles of drainage
bitches were dug. Windows and
porches were screened, huge refrig-
orators built and sanitary con-
Gol OF all food was rigidly enforced.
Both around the camps and out
on the fields close medical watch
was Kept over every man through
weekly examina tions Today fewer
than l per cent of the hundreds of
Americans in Africa show anv
trace OF malaria infection in the
weekly checkup. Had not such
precautions been taken, this Afri-
can air line by this time might
have been permanently crippled.
AS 1t is, several African air sta
tlons are now operating on a "a
hour basis, with planes landing and
taking off into the hot African
Skies every Is minutes or less,
For the men, normal day be-
gins at am, when they 60 out on
the field for three hours of hard
work In relatively cool morning air.
About 8, the first rush is over and
they can escape to the shade of the
camp for breakfast and a little rest.
Long before noon they are again
busy preparing for the stream of
planes which begins at 2 o'clock
and goes on all afternoon.
158 Degrees in Sun.
Boys from the cool New England
states toll in sunlight that regis
tered 158 degrees, some of them
spurrlng on squads of naked ma
tlves vino have never heard a loco
motive whistle or seen an automo-
bile. Airway veterans from the
embattled Pacific islands of Wake
ana Midway, their eyes half
blinded with fever. drive themselves
to stay on their feet until an as
signed job was finished. Deeds of
self-sacriflce and heroism are nu-
merouS out here-acts which in
combat would have won medals.
They are performed by laborers,
foremen, mechanics and pilots
whose names will never be known
to the outside world.
Franklin Gledhill, the man who
guides Pan Americans forces in
Africa, has averaged $500 miles of
flying every "a hours for 80 con-
secutive days, or approximately the
equivalent of flying across the
United States every day for
month. Inspecting stations, check
ing route installation and encamp-
ments, he has also surveyed alter
nate flight paths across Africa
which, should any link in the aerial
chain be broken. will still enable
the transport to get through to
their strategic destinations in the
Near East and beyond the Indian
Ocean.
Consider. also. the terrific task of
transporting to this continent from
America mountain of materials
and supplies. This involved more
than 10000 categories of require
ment. every single one of which
carried a Government ALA prior
ity Conveyed to Africa by war
ships, supply ships unloaded in six
weeks more than $4,000 tons of sup
plies on African docks
Mountain Of Supplies Moved.
Day after dav the material piled
up-road scrapers. airplane parts. /.
cement, nails, Diesel engines. |
trucks, reels of cable drums of |
paint, pre-fabricated 44-ton houses,
dry groceries, fuel tanks, thousands |
of bundles of structural steel. At |
the same time. tons of miscellane- |
Gus items arrived for the hundreds
Of men at work on the airline. BY
hundreds and thousands, such items |
as sheets, pillows and blankets, bed
lamps, paper plates, inkwells,
straight razors, hair-cutting combs
and shoeShine kits collected on the