Crimson Route The Crimson Route was a set of joint United States and Canadian transport routes planned for ferrying planes and material from North America to Europe during World War II . The project was ended in 1943 and never fully developed . Overview . The 1940 fall of France and the Battle of Britain alarmed Americans who feared that Great Britain might also fall , bringing the Axis one step closer to the United States . Eschewing direct involvement in the war , in 1940 , the United States concentrated on " hemisphere defense " and began planning for airfields and air routes in the Arctic . With the fall of Denmark in April , Greenland came under U . S . protection , and an inconclusive survey for airfields was made there that summer . With the passage of the Lend - Lease act in March 1941 , large numbers of American - built aircraft were to be ferried to the United Kingdom . Joint American - British - Canadian - Free Danish efforts resulted in airfields being built or expanded in Newfoundland , in Labrador ( Goose Bay ) , and by that summer , Greenland ( Bluie West One ) . The British field in Reykjavík , Iceland , was expanded and supplemented by others . Because of the urgency of the situation and heavy losses at sea , interest developed in creating an alternate air ferry route further north . It would have better weather conditions and would be on a great - circle route from the aircraft factories on the west coast . It could also serve as overflow or alternate destinations for air traffic on the southern route . For this purpose the Crystal stations ( Fort Chimo , Frobisher Bay , and Padloping ) were surveyed and begun in Labrador and Baffin Island . That October , the important airport at Bluie West Eight ( Sondrestrom ) was founded in Greenland . During the Argentia summit in August , USAAF Captain Elliott Roosevelt ( who had surveyed the Crystal stations ) briefed the top decisionmakers on the concept for the alternate route , which was accepted and given high priority . The network was now extended to include Crimson West , extending from Edmonton to Frobisher , and Crimson East , which used new bases east of Hudson Bay . This meant that the aircraft could be flown across the United States and Canada , where they would then be flown across the North Atlantic via Greenland and Iceland , never exceeding about 700 nautical miles in needed range . A much shorter route from Southern California could be used by flying a Great Circle Route north though central and northern Canada from Southern California , the distance to Iceland might be cut by almost 600 miles . It was expected that much more favourable flying weather would be found than in Northeastern North America , that valuable experience with Arctic conditions of flight would be acquired , and that the experiment might lead to the development of a shorter airway into Russia ( see : Northwest Staging Route ) . In practice , the northern alternate route would suffer from extended darkness and extreme cold in winter , and difficult resupply and sparse infrastructure in summer . With the greater success of the southern route and the defeat of the U - boats in 1943 , the Crimson concept fell into disfavor , but not until the fields and considerable support facilities had been constructed . Planned routes . First referred to as the " North East Staging Route " it eventually became known as the " Crimson Project " or " Crimson Route " , with Crimson being the code - name for Canada . ( Many have suggested that the Crimson moniker referred to the sanguinary expectation of a back - flow of killed and wounded from Europe . However , while this was expected and base hospitals built on many fields , it does not account for the name . ] The project came under the jurisdiction of the Air Transport Command North Atlantic Division . Originally there were to be three routes making up the Crimson Route : Eastern , Western and Central . Eastern route . This route was referred to by the American military as the " North Atlantic Ferrying " or " Staging Route . " Central route . Most of the Canadian airfields were newly and expressly constructed for the purpose of the Crimson Route . Western route . This was the route that the American military directly referred to using the term Crimson Route . History . A directive issued by the United States Chief of Staff on 24 May 1942 ordered construction of landing strips at The Pas and Churchill in Manitoba , at Coral Harbour Southhampton Island on Hudson Bay , along with weather stations and runways at Fort Chimo Quebec ( CRYSTAL I ) , on Frobisher Bay ( CRYSTAL II ) , and on Padloping Island ( CRYSTAL III ) to begin during the summer of 1942 . The project received a severe setback in late summer ( 27 August 1942 ) when an enemy U - boat operating off the Labrador coast sank a ship carrying some 6 , 000 tons of cargo , including vital construction equipment intended for use at CRYSTAL I , CRYSTAL II , and Coral Harbour on Southampton Island Hudson Bay . The winter of 1942 - 43 presented major problems all along the North Atlantic Transport Route . A high accident rate due to weather was experienced beginning in September 1942 and it continued to climb . On 22 November Air Transport Command suspended the transportation of passengers across the North Atlantic for the duration of the winter . The operation of two - engine transports beyond Iceland already had been forbidden . Some ferrying , chiefly of long - range aircraft , continued into December , as did the transport operations of C - 54 Skymaster ' s and C - 87 Liberator ' s under contract with TWA and American Airlines , but by mid - December the North Atlantic Transport Route had been virtually closed down for the winter ATC traffic to Great Britain was diverted to the South Atlantic Transport Route . The distance to Britain by this route was double that of the projected CRIMSON route , but distance dis - advantage was eclipsed by the fact that operations that could be maintained on a year - round basis . Efforts on another front were also productive . Prior to 1943 the Portuguese government only allowed German U - boats and navy ships to refuel in the Azores . However diplomatic efforts in 1943 persuaded Portuguese dictator Salazar to lease bases on Azores Islands to the British . This represented a change in policy and was a key turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the middle of the Atlantic . This helped allies to hunt U - boats , protect vital convoys and support mid - Atlantic Air Transport Command ferry efforts . This new prospect in 1943 that a transatlantic route through the Azores would soon be possible brought the expensive and unlucky CRIMSON ROUTE project to an early end . On the recommendation of ATC , the Army Air Force in the spring of 1944 abandoned the airfields at The Pas , Churchill and Southampton Island while those at the CRYSTALS and Mingan were reduced to emergency status . Save for five RAF planes which followed the CRIMSON routes to the United Kingdom in the summer of 1943 , virtually no other use was of the route by either ferried or transport United States aircraft .