Fighter Ferry Service

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23414, 22 August 1941, Page 6

Fighter Ferry Service

A. minor but interesting outcome of the meeting between Mr Churchill and Mr Roosevelt and their military advisers is the agreement announced' by Mr Roosevelt whereby fighter aeroplanes will be ferried by Pan American Airways from the American continent to West Africa and thence to the Middle East. The immediate gain from this arrangement will be a much more rapid reinforcement of British air power in the Middle East. Though bombers have already been flown to Egypt, fighters have hitherto been sent by sea at a heavy cost in time and shipping space. It is also disclosed, however, that the ferry service will be supplemented by a regular air transport service between the' United States and an undisclosed West African terminal, which may possibly be in one of the Free French African colonies. West Africa is now one of the major anxieties of American foreign policy, since all the evidence goes to show that Germany has already gained a strong foothold at Dakar and hopes, by developing the trans-Saharan route, to Open a leak in the blockade and an important line of communications with the outside world. Already an Italian air line is operating regularly between West Africa and Latin America. The projected Pan American service will establish a much-needed contact between the United States and an area where a major diplomatic battle is now being fought. Incidentally, this development draws attention to the strategic importance of commercial air lines and helps to explain why the United States Government was willing to pay such heavy subsidies to enable Pan American Airways to develop its services to the Far East and to New Zealand, By means of the bases which Pan 1 American Airways has established in the Pacific, bombers could, if necessary, be flown from the United States to the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies, Singapore, Australia, or New Zealand.