Operation Cedar

Last updated

Project Cedar (also known as Operation Cedar[ citation needed ], short for "Civilian Emergency Defence Aid to Russia" [1] ) was a World War II project to deliver short-range aircraft from the United States to the USSR via Abadan, Iran in the Persian Gulf. [2]

The project was initiated before the United States' entry into the war, [1] a base was established on Abadan Island in March 1942. Oil tankers, returning from delivering oil to the United States, would take Bell P-39, Curtiss P-40, and Douglas A-20 parts to Abadan, where they were assembled into aircraft and flown to USSR. The 82nd Air Depot Group was part of Project Cedar. [2] Head of the project on the Soviet side was Leonid Ivanovich Zorin. [3]

Another similarly secret operation, Project 19, was set up in Gura [1] Eritrea to repair RAF aircraft. [4] [5] [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lend-Lease</span> WWII program to provide U.S. allies with free armaments

Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States, was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, Republic of China, and other Allied nations of the Second World War with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. The aid was given free of charge on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Aircraft Company</span> American aerospace manufacturer, 1921–1967

The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace and defense company based in Southern California. Founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr., it merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas, where it operated as a division. McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1986.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas DC-5</span> Twin-engine propeller aircraft intended for shorter routes

The Douglas DC-5 was a 16-to-22-seat, twin-engine propeller aircraft intended for shorter routes than the Douglas DC-3 or Douglas DC-4. By the time it entered commercial service in 1940, many airlines were canceling orders for aircraft. Consequently, only five civilian DC-5s were built. With the Douglas Aircraft Company already converting to World War II military production, the DC-5 was soon overtaken by world events, although a limited number of military variants were produced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Abdulaziz Air Base</span> Royal Saudi Air Force base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

King Abdulaziz Air Base, also known as Dhahran Air Base and formerly Dhahran International Airport, Dhahran Airport and Dhahran Airfield, is a Royal Saudi Air Force base located in Dhahran in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Located west of Thuqbah and 7 km (4 mi) southeast of the Saudi Aramco Dhahran Camp, the airbase was the first Saudi Arabian airport to be constructed, in 1961, and is under the command of Air vice-marshal Prince Turki bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctic convoys of World War II</span> Allied oceangoing convoys

The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945, sailing via several seas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, with periods with no sailings during several months in 1942, and in the summers of 1943 and 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas World Cruiser</span> Type of aircraft

The Douglas World Cruiser (DWC) was developed to meet a requirement from the United States Army Air Service for an aircraft suitable for an attempt at the first flight around the world. The Douglas Aircraft Company responded with a modified variant of their DT torpedo bomber, the DWC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persian Corridor</span> Supply route in World War II

The Persian Corridor was a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II. Of the 17.5 million long tons of US Lend-Lease aid provided to the Soviet Union, 7.9 million long tons (45%) were sent through Iran.

The Persian Gulf Command was a United States Army service command established in December 1943 to facilitate the supply of US lend-lease war material to the Soviet Union, through the "Persian Corridor".

Abadan International Airport is situated 12 kilometers away from the city of Abadan, Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brookley Air Force Base</span>

Brookley Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Mobile, Alabama. After it closed in 1969, it became what is now known as the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soviet Union–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were fully established in 1933 as the succeeding bilateral ties to those between the Russian Empire and the United States, which lasted from 1776 until 1917; they were also the predecessor to the current bilateral ties between the Russian Federation and the United States that began in 1992 after the end of the Cold War. The relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States was largely defined by mistrust and tense hostility. The invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany as well as the attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan marked the Soviet and American entries into World War II on the side of the Allies in June and December 1941, respectively. As the Soviet–American alliance against the Axis came to an end following the Allied victory in 1945, the first signs of post-war mistrust and hostility began to immediately appear between the two countries, as the Soviet Union militarily occupied Eastern European countries and turned them into satellite states, forming the Eastern Bloc. These bilateral tensions escalated into the Cold War, a decades-long period of tense hostile relations with short phases of détente that ended after the collapse of the Soviet Union and emergence of the present-day Russian Federation at the end of 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military history of Ethiopia</span> Overview of Ethiopias involvement in military history

The military history of Ethiopia dates back to the foundation of early Ethiopian Kingdoms in 980 BC. Ethiopia has been involved in many of the major conflicts in the horn of Africa, and was one of the few native African nations which remained independent during the Scramble for Africa, managing to create a modern army. 19th and 20th century Ethiopian Military history is characterized by conflicts with the Dervish State, Mahdist Sudan, Egypt, and Italy, and later by a civil war.

The Pacific Route was a delivery route used during World War II to move goods, particularly Lend-Lease goods from the United States to the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran</span> 1941 conflict of World War II

The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran or Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia was the joint invasion of the neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941. The two powers announced that they would stay until six months after the end of the war with their enemy Nazi Germany, which turned out to be 2 March 1946. On that date the British began to withdraw, but the Soviet Union delayed until May, citing "threats to Soviet security".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azerbaijan in World War II</span>

The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic entered World War II with the Soviet Union after the German declaration of war on June 22, 1941. Azerbaijan's oilfields were enticing to the Germans due to the USSR's heavy dependency on Caucasus oil – setting the scene for German campaigns attempting to capture and seize the oilfields in Baku during the Battle of the Caucasus. Azerbaijan’s oil was very decisive for Soviet victory. More than 600,000 people from Azerbaijan were conscripted to the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army during World War II from 1941 to 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pahlavi Iran</span> Country in Western Asia (1925–1979)

Pahlavi Iran, officially the Imperial State of Persia until 1935 and the Imperial State of Iran from 1935 to 1979, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty. The Pahlavi dynasty was created in 1925 and lasted until 1979, when it was ousted as part of the Islamic Revolution, which ended Iran's continuous monarchy and established the current Islamic Republic of Iran.

SS <i>U.S.S.R. Victory</i> Victory ship of the United States

The SS U.S.S.R. Victory was the third Victory ship built during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. She was launched by the California Shipbuilding Company on February 26, 1944. The ship was completed and delivered to the wartime operator of all United States oceangoing shipping, the War Shipping Administration (WSA), on April 26, 1944. U.S.S.R. Victory, official number 245247, was assigned to Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc., under a standard WSA operating agreement at that time. That agreement continued until the ship's sale on March 7, 1947. The ship’s United States Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3, hull number 3 (V-3). U.S.S.R. Victory served in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul F. Yount</span> American general (1908–1984)

Paul Frailey Yount was a United States Army general who served in World War II and the Korean War. He was the Chief of the United States Army Transportation Corps from 1954 to 1958.

References

  1. 1 2 3 T. H. Vail Motter, ed. (1952). United States Army in World War II: Middle East Theatre, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia . Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History Department of the Army. p.  125.
  2. 1 2 Carol Adele Kelly, ed. (2007). Voices of My Comrades: America's Reserve Officers Remember World War II . New York City: Fordham University Press. p.  212. ISBN   978-0-8232-2823-2.
  3. T. H. Vail Motter, ed. (1952). United States Army in World War II: Middle East Theatre, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia . Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History Department of the Army. p.  129.
  4. "Project 19 - US repair base for British aircraft in Eritrea ", American Military History site
  5. "Boeing & Douglas: A History of Customer Service", Boeing.com
  6. "Episode in Eritrea", Evening Post, 25 July 1945