Operation Cedar
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (July 2009) |
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
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Project 19 - US repair base for British aircraft in Eritrea ", American Military History site
- ^ "Boeing & Douglas: A History of Customer Service", Boeing.com
- ^ "Episode in Eritrea", Evening Post, 25 July 1945