861.248/287
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Hickerson)
Mr. Secretary: I was in Fairbanks, Alaska, on July 11 during a visit of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, United States and [Page 679] Canada,14 and I saw a great deal of the activities in connection with the ferry route for delivering planes to Siberia.
As you know, the planes are manufactured and equipped in the United States (including Russian insignia) and flown by American Army officers to Fairbanks. In Fairbanks Soviet pilots take over the planes and fly them to Siberia. After leaving Fairbanks the Russian pilots call at Nome or Galena, Alaska, for fueling. They then take off for Welkal, [Velkal] Siberia, where they are delivered to other Soviet pilots.
I saw a considerable number of planes in Fairbanks with the red star insignia. I counted 15 fighter planes (P–39’s—the Bell Aircobra) and 11 medium bombers (the North American B–25 or Billy Mitchell). I saw a large number of Russian pilots at the port of Fairbanks and talked to several of them.
On the night of July 11 I had an extended conversation with Colonel Machin, the Soviet officer in charge of the ferry detail in Fairbanks. Colonel Machin speaks little English but understands some and did not speak French so we talked through an interpreter. A young Captain in the United States Engineers acted as interpreter for us, assisted by a young Soviet woman who is employed by the ferry detail.
Colonel Machin said that during the month of June he took delivery of 320 U.S. military planes at Fairbanks. He said that the schedule of deliveries called for 400 and that with his present force he could handle 500 planes a month.15 (A United States Army Air Force officer at Fairbanks, Colonel Kitchenman, in a subsequent conversation with me stated that he believed these figures were correct and that Colonel Machin’s present staff could actually handle 500 planes per month. This is of considerable importance because of the fact that we had heard from a variety of sources that we are delivering planes in Fairbanks faster than the Eussians can take delivery. Apparently this is not correct.)
Colonel Machin informed me that his detail flies the planes as far as Welkal where they are turned over to another group which flies another leg of the route across Siberia toward the front. A separate detail flies each leg and the pilots thus fly constantly over the same route. There are approximately 100 members of the Soviet ferry detail in Fairbanks each night; most of these are of course pilots.
Colonel Machin said that 95 percent of all planes taken over in Fairbanks safely reach their destination. I asked whether he meant Welkal or the front and he replied that he meant the concentration center near the front. He was generous in his praise of the American [Page 680] planes, especially the P–39 (Aircobra) which he said was “wonderful” for use against the Fokke Wulf and against ground troops and tanks; he also praised highly the B–25 medium bomber.
[Here follow two paragraphs descriptive of the living conditions and associations of the pilots in Fairbanks.]