The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-06-23
|AIR ROUTE VIA. ALASKA MAKING
 USSR NE|GHBOR

wartime secrecy Is lifted in Alaska, Americans will find in the Far North one of the worlds best in- tegrated airways, providing the shortest aerial route to Asia and making Russia a neighbor on our western border.
 That is the overall picture of aerial development pieced together from recent announcements of war department and other government officials, a picture which gives a glimpse of a much-used aerial lend- lease route to Russia, indicates the importance of Alaska in the war against Japan, and portends a great commercial sky era in the future
 The Alaskan skyways have de- veloped under military secrecy along two routes. One runs along the coast from Seattle to the Aleutians Islands and the other inland from Great Falls, Mont, to Fairbanks, and Nome, is only 150 miles from the Soviet East Cape in Siberia The aerial boundary of the United States and Russia Inerges over Der ing Strait and the East Cape is less than 400 miles from Anadyr which the Soviet embassy once des- cribed as the eastern terminus of the 5.000-nile Russian airline from Moscow.
 Lend-Lease Pipeline
 The Alaskan Siberian route to Moscow was pioneered in 1941 as a lend-lease route and was oper- ating at "peak capacity" by No- vember, 1042, for movement of "desperately-needed air equipment to the Soviet Union at @ critical time" the War Department said in recent citation to Maj. Gen. Follett Bradley of Long 1s- land, N. r., who played a major role in negotiations with Russia.
 Some indication of importance of the northern route as 8 lend lease pipeline is seen in the war depart ment-approved announcement of the Douglas aircraft company that 1t has delivered more than 5000 at- tack bombers to Russia, most of them by air.
 Existence of the route was brought into prominence by flights of notables on diplomatic ex- changes between Premier Stalin and President Roosevelt. This is the route used by Joseph E. Davies on his second mission to Moscow" by Wendell L. Willkie on his "One World" tour, and more recently by Vice President Henry A. Wallace on his visit to Generalissimo Chiarg Kai-shek.
 Spurned CanoI Project
 Undersecretary of War Robert P. Pattrson revealed importance of the route when he told the Tru- man Committee one of the reasons for development of the Canol oil project in the Norman Wells area was the need for @ nearby fuel supply for fueling planes being flown to Russia.
 For security reasons, Army of- ficials have never announced the location of landing fields along the route but Marshall Hoppin, civil aeronautics authority chief in Alaska, announced recently that 30 new airhelds have been com pleted in Alaska since the war started, adding thousands of miles of new air routes to those exist ing before the war. The bases were built under the most difficult en- gineering conditions, many of them carved out in isolated areas with bulldozers, graders and other equip ment transported to the site by air. plane.
 Weather is the bugaloo to opera tions throughout the North, but the Alaskan-S Siberian route has the ad- vantage of offering an overland route, except for a patch of water between Nome and East Cape. It is also the shortest route to Asia from Midwest and Eastern states.
 Most Direct to Japan
 The coastal air route over which the Navy has been operating regu- larly-scheduled flights from Seattle to Aleutian points since July, 1942, is the most direct between the United States and Japan. It is 400 miles closer from Seattle to Yoko- hama via the Aleautians than 1t is by way of Hawaii. However, the dense fog-banks that shroud the island chain make 1t a less feasible commercial route to Asia.
 Aside from its current military value, the northern route to Russia if of importance because 1t means that the U. S. S. R. is no longer a European" nation. She is now a neighbor which the airplanes has brought almost as close as Canada and Mexico.
 Already the sight of Russian flyers is regarded as commonplace | in Fairbanks and other Alaskan cities. In a recent story the Anch- orage Times said that plane move ments and the puresence of Russian pilots in Fairbanks to take delivery of the ships were widely known in Alaska" The paper said it was "a common occurrence to see large numbers of warplanes in the air over the city carrying the red star AE Aw.r