24 - Friday, December 18, 1998 ~ North Shore News

; Local iracks

@ Warplanes to Alaska by
Blake W. Smith. Published
by Hancock House, $47.95.

By Katharine Hamer
Contributing Writcy

BLAKE W. Smith has
an unusual hobby: he
spends his leisure time
looking for plane crash-
2s.

Smith's passion arose trom
a fiftdloms love of aviation. He
initially began hunting tor
crash sites on the North
Shore, but in 1990. the
North Vancouver resident
estended his search. He went
looking for a crash in the
Yukon, :

What he found on top of a
desolate mountain was to
inspire years of research, cul-
minating in che publication of
a cofiee table-sized book:
Warplanes to Alaska.

The plane wreckage that
Smith found in the Yukon was
thar of an American fighter
plane dating bact: to Second
World War. But the plane was
marked with a red star: the
symbol of the Kussicn army

Intrigued, Smith invesc-
gated further. ti: contacted
the U.S. military archives in
Alabama and discovered that
aithough the planc had
crashed in 1943, the debris of
the plane and the remains of
its American pilot had not
been found unul the 1960"s.

The reason for this is
burted in the tale woven by
Smith in Warplanes to Alaska.

Smith’s tome details the
little-known story of the
Northern Route airway from
Great Falls, Montana, to dark-
est Siberia.

The airway was initially
used in the 1930's to trans-
port fortune-seckers and
entrepreneurs to remote com-

~ munities in the Yukon and

Alaska. But with the impend-
ing crisis of Second World
War, the route was opened up,
both to safeguard the U.S.
against Japanese attack, and to

$5.00 off any

os

ak >
Photo supplied

BLAKE W. Smith with a copy of his new book,

Warplanes to Alasica.

facilitate the transport of war-
planes to a Russian military
struggling to stave off German
forces.

The secretive delivery of
fighter planes to Russia was
part of America’s “lend-lcase”
agreement, which was imple-
mented in 1941 to allow the
U.S. to assist Allied war
efforts without getting directly
iwolved in combat.

Amecican pilots flew the
planes from Great Falls up to
Fairbanks, Alaska where
Russian pilots took over for
the second leg af ih: fight to
Krasnoyarsk in Siberia.

All of the pilots involved
underteok great risk by flying
in severe weather conditions
over barren terrain.

“During the three years of
ferrying aircraft to Russians
through Alaska, several entire
ilights would become lost and
forced to beily-land in the
wilds. Most dewned pilots
were rescued within hours, a
day or twe at most — most,
but not all,” says Smith in the
book.

The route’s existence was
kept hidden throughout the
war, and has not been written
about in any detail since.

Smitir’s book, theretore,
marks a unique contribution
to military history. .

Smith spent several years
interviewing Canadian,
Russian and American veter-
ans and accumulating doce-
mentary evidence including
the comprchensive collection
of photographs featured in the
bock.

“I wrote an article fora
Russian magazine, asking for
information,” he says, “and
got a barrage of letters —
everything from marriage pro-
posals to a request for help
from a child in Chernobyl.
But there were also many let-
ters from Russian veterans
who had taker, part in the
lend-lease project.”

At the end of Second
World War, and with the onset
of the Cold War, Russian ser-
vicemen were forbidden to
speak of or acknowledge their
role in the transportation of
Allied planes.

“I spoke to one Russian
pilot who was call-d into the
commander’s office and tid
to erase the period of coopera-
tion (with the Americans)
from memory,” savs Smith.

“A pilot who noted in his

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logbook tear ie was fying 2
C-47 0S. transport plane was
alo reprimanded. He had his
official 1D papers removed,
and was then inciigible tor a
pension.”

Canadian servizenien and
women were alsa part of the
lend-lease chain. The
Northern Route cut a sizeable
Swathe through the artlung
corners of northern Canada.
and the Canadians were
responsible tor the creation
and maintenance of airports
Mong the route at small towns
like Fort Nelson.

Fifteen to 20 Canadians
alo maintained each emer-
genev landing strip dong the
route, and acted as search and
rescue pilots.

Offtcially, the public wasn’t
supposed to know of the air-
way’s existence, says Smith.
“Ifyou were caught waking a

-photograph of any of the

planes or sites, there was a
$3,000 fine.”

“But most of the
(Canadian) pilots were only a
year removed from civilian
life. When they went into bars
in Caigary or Edmonton, they
were very talkative — every-
one in town knew what was
going on.”

Besides, Smith adds, it
would have been hard not to
notice 8,060 planes with red
star markings ilying overhead.

Warplanes to Alaska’s his-
torical narrative is underscored
by numerous anecdotes from
servicemen who flew the
planes, built the runways, and

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operated the communications
that kept The a PuMune
throughour the war,

Smith's sontribusan to
Abtory has been honoured in
Sunes manners Pie Seventh
Ferrving Group vetecans a7

g Manes ak
the Northern Route -- has
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