Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-04-28
BY CLYDE FARNSWORTH and
GEORGE TUCKER,

Associated Press War Correspondents
SOMEWHER IN IRAN,-Ameri-
can war material is reaching Rus
STA via the Persian corridor faster
than the Russians can take it..
Their warehouses and freight yards
are glutted
Accompanied by Russian officers,
We inspected Soviet supply dumps
deep within the Russian zone of
Northern Iran and found yards piled
high with American war equipment
still not moved to the fighting
fronts because the rate of arrival
has caught up with and surpassed
Russian facilities
We followed the corridor from the
Persian Gulf to within few miles
of the Caspian Sea, visiting docks,
rail centers and great assembly
plants, and saw the fruits of the ex-
tensive effort that has transformed
the Persian plains and plateaus in
to a vast conVeyor belt over which
move planes. tanks, armored cars,
raw materials, explosives, trucks,
jeeps and guns for Russian soldiers.
We saw Russian officers in smock
blouses and black boots, guns strap
ped to their hips, rub their hands
and kick their heels together as
Mitchell and Boston bombers. fresh
from American factories, dropped
out Of the sky We saw lines of
tractors pulling seven-ton trailers
in twisting conveys miles long
carrying supplies through the rag
ged defiles of the Pushtikuh Noun
tains to the Red army.
We saw American locomotives
pulling American rolling stock man
ned by experts from the Erie, New
York Central, Pennsylvania and
other American lines. We saw
great cranes lifting locomotives out
of barges on to dockside tracks to
help in movement of this mass of
materials northward over hundreds
Of miles of difficult terrain.
We saw Americans, sweating on
this delivery job without equal.
struggle against the handicaps of
adverse geography and climate
They are working in exhausting
heat, sitting dust, knee-deep mud,
snowdrifts, billiards. and driving
rain in their place and season. At
the same time they must combat the
hazards of strange diseases in a
strange land.
The full responsibility for these
undertakings is on the shoulders
Of Maj Gen. Donald H. Connolly,
lsnky West Pointer whose father
before him was an Army officer and
who spent years in the Philippines,
Panama. France and odd corners
of the world preparing himself for
Just such an assignment as this,
the supreme assignment of his
career.
Kindly as school superintendent,
gray and the father of two sons,
Gen. Connolly is striking figure
In the riding boots and breeches
which he prefers to other attire,
Operations in the Persian corri-
dor fall into four great divisions:
i. Air.
A palm edged island is the heart
of the air effort. This 45-mile-
long spit OF land-one of the hot
test spots In the world in May,
June and July--is the reception
center for fighters and bombers
from America.
The fighters are trucked in,
Grated. from cargo ships, assembled
by the facile hands of experts and
Cd then inspected and given test flights
The bombers arrive under their
own power manned by ferry pilots
to whom the ocean crossing is only
q workday task
Through a series of great hangers
the planes move in steady progress
sion from one servicing to another,