Alsib

After the USSR entered the war against Germany, the Soviet Union got the opportunity and began to purchase military equipment and equipment from the Allies. Including airplanes. In the United States, the first batch of combat aircraft was purchased in August 1941, and since October 1941, deliveries to the USSR began to take place under Lend-Lease . During the war, aircraft were delivered to the Union under a Lend-Lease agreement on several routes: through the North Atlantic to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk ; across the Pacific Ocean to Vladivostok ; along the Trans-Iranian route : along the Indian Ocean to the Iraqi port of Basra , and then through Iran to the USSR; as well as along Alsib, which is one of the routes. ^[one]

Work on the construction of the airway began in October 1941. On October 9, the State Defense Committee adopted decree No. 739 on the organization and equipment of the Krasnoyarsk-Uelen air line. That is, the organization of the delivery of aircraft from the USA to the USSR by air. Several different routes were studied, and the path through the Bering Strait , the central regions of Chukotka and Yakutia to Krasnoyarsk was chosen: the city of Nome in Alaska - Anadyr - Berelyokh ( Susuman ) - Yakutsk - Kirensk - Krasnoyarsk . According to the decree, the airway was to be open by December 30, 1941. The creation of this route was entrusted to the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the supervision of Major General V. S. Molokov . The existing airfields in Anadyr, Markovo , Seymchan, Berelekh and Zyryanka for use on the future route were transferred from Dalstroy and the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route to the subordination of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet. D. E. Chusov was appointed head of the airline’s construction. October 13 was formed, and on the 16th flew to Irkutsk the first group of specialists ^[2] .

In November 1941, the reconstruction of existing airfields began. In Krasnoyarsk, two concrete runways were lengthened, taxiways made, aircraft parking areas equipped. The airfield in Yakutsk was reconstructed. The construction of new airfields began in 1942. Along the route, communication centers, radio navigation, meteorological stations were built, flight maps were specified. On April 27, 1942, the Civil Air Fleet, which built and operated the highway, was subordinate to the Air Force of the Red Army. In July 1942, Vladimir Kokkinaki flew along an unfinished highway on a B-25 bomber and delivered to Moscow an American government commission on the coordination of the start of aircraft distillation. On July 23, for the acceptance of the route, the commission of the Civil Air Fleet flew out. Having examined the route, the commission allowed the launch of the route into temporary operation ^[3] .

By October 1942, ten aerodromes were commissioned on the route: five base - in Yakutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kirensk, Seymchan and Uelkale ; there are also five spare ones - in Aldan , Olekminsk , Oymyakon , Berelyokh ( Susuman ) and Markovo. Airfields were built and reconstructed in Bodaibo , Vitim , Ust-May , Khandyge , Zyryanka , Anadyr ^[3] . 16 airfields were built in the USSR, 15 in the USA and Canada.

In the summer of 1942, the 1st Naval Air Division of the Civil Air Fleet was formed in Ivanovo . Here, the pilots were introduced to American aircraft and conducted training flights. Colonel Ilya Pavlovich Mazuruk , a polar pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, was appointed commander of the division and the head of the route. The division included five air regiments. In autumn, the flight crew was transported to the track. Division headquarters and airway control were located in Yakutsk ^{[4] [5]} .

The place where Soviet pilots took the baton of the distillation of aircraft from American colleagues was in the city of Fairbanks . Here, Soviet specialists accepted the aircraft, and then they were already distilled by pilots from the USSR. Fairbanks, located in the center of Alaska, was chosen as the place for the transfer of aircraft due to its better security than Nome in the event of an attack by the Japanese, who in the summer of 1942 occupied part of Alaska Territory . On September 4, 1942, the Soviet mission arrived in Fairbanks, on September 24, the personnel of the 1st Ferry Regiment, and on September 30, 1942, the first batch of aircraft flew to the USSR. These were 12 A-20 bombers, the first P-40 fighters were sent on October 11 and arrived in Krasnoyarsk in early November ^{[6] [4]} . On Alsib, bombers and transport planes drove one at a time, or in groups of two or three aircraft, fighters flew in groups led by bombing leaders. From Krasnoyarsk, bombers drove to the front under their own power, and fighters - disassembled by rail ^[4] .

On January 10, 1943, the 1st Ferry Regiment, operating on the section from Fairbanks to Welkal , was transferred to the submission of the military reception of the Air Force in Alaska. In June of the same year, the Moscow-Uelkal airway control was formed under the supervision of Major General Alexander Alexandrovich Avseevich, who was also appointed deputy chief of the main department of the Civil Air Fleet. Mazuruk remained the division commander. Krasnoyarsk airway became known as the Krasnoyarsk-Uelkal Airway. Major General Ilya Sergeyevich Semenov became its leader. Accordingly, the route and the 1st ferry division were subordinate to the management of the Moscow – Uelkal airway ^[7] . On August 23, 1943, the Civil Air Fleet, from the subordination of the SC Air Force, was transferred to the subordination of the ADD commander ^[4] . On June 5, 1944, Colonel A. G. Melnikov was replaced by Mazuruk as the division commander, and on October 1, I. S. Semenov was replaced by Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General M. I. Shevelyov ^[8] .

In July 1943, the head of the highway signed an order to form the management of first-class airports (Kirensk, Yakutsk, Seymchan, Uelkal). In the state, they relied on two cars, six trucks, 12 special and four tractors; personnel - 100 military personnel and 127 civilian employees. In August, Krasnoyarsk 1st class airport, which had previously been under the control of the Air Force, was transferred under the control of the route. The airport housed the Kharkov Military Aviation School. In the workshops of the school, aircraft were repaired, repainted, prepared for shipment to the front. Also, aircraft were repaired and prepared in workshops on the island of Molokov, on the territory of a ship repair plant , at an aircraft repair plant ^[9] .

In the autumn of 1943, five aerodromes were commissioned: Nizhneilimsk, Vitim, Teply Klyuch (Khandyga), Omolon (Kegali) and Anadyr. In Kirensk , Yakutsk and Seymchan , runways were covered with tar, some airfields were covered with prefabricated metal sheets delivered from the United States. In 1944, Tanyurer and Chaplin airfields were opened in Chukotka , as well as Uchur and Ekimchan - on the Yakutsk- Khabarovsk highway. The equipment of the track with radio facilities has improved: at the end of 1943, 24 radio stations and 18 radio direction finders were operating on the route, in 1944, 25 transmitters purchased in the USA, five receiving radio centers, 11 radio direction finders and two powerful radio stations in Yakutsk and Seymchan ^{[9] [10]} were installed. The route was provided with material support through the ports in Magadan , Tiksi , Provideniya , Ambarchik and Uelkale, from where goods were transported along rivers and roads to 25 points of reception ^[11] .

In 1945, there were five main routes on the highway. The main one is from Krasnoyarsk to Uelkal; and also: Yakutsk - Khabarovsk, Anadyr - Magadan - Khabarovsk, Magadan - Kirensk - Krasnoyarsk and Yakutsk - Tiksi. Up to thirty airfields were used ^[12] .

In the summer of 1945, airplanes for the Trans-Baikal , First and Second Far Eastern Fronts and the Pacific Fleet were distilled along the highway in support of military operations against the Japanese Empire . In August, deliveries of aircraft from the USA along the highway ceased, and the 1st ferry regiment was relocated from Fairbanks to Markovo ^[13] . Ferry division was disbanded in October 1945 ^[14] .

American pilots delivered planes to the city of Fairbanks in Alaska. On the American side, the 7th ferry team of the Alaskan wing of the transport command of the US Air Force carried out the distillation of aircraft; the headquarters of the group was located in Great Falls. In the United States, an airplane was driven from the start to the end point of the route by the same pilot, unlike the USSR, where the aircraft were relayed. In Fairbanks, the Soviet military mission received planes, which were then distilled by Soviet pilots. The route from Fairbanks to Krasnoyarsk was divided into five stages, for which five distillation aviation regiments (PAP) of the first naval division of the Civil Air Fleet were created. ^[15]

The 1st Regiment Aviation Regiment drove planes from Fairbanks through the Bering Strait , with an intermediate landing in Nome, to Huelkal. The 2nd PAP was based in Uelkale and drove the planes to Seymchan . 3rd PAP - from Seymchan to Yakutsk, 4th PAP - from Yakutsk to Kirensk, 5th PAP - from Kirensk to Krasnoyarsk. Having handed over the planes to a neighboring regiment, the pilots returned to their base with transport planes of a special squadron, which was later transformed into the 8th transport regiment . Not long existed on the route of the 7th PAP, in which pilots drove airplanes from beginning to end of the route, following the example of the Americans. As a result, this method was recognized as unsuccessful, and the regiment was disbanded ^{[4] [16]} .

For each distilled aircraft, pilots received a bonus reward. For the fighter on sections of the Uelkal - Seymchan and Seymchan - Yakutsk routes, the pilot was paid 700 rubles, on the remaining sections - 600 rubles. For the bomber, depending on the section of the route, the pilot was paid 850 or 650 rubles, respectively; the navigator - 700 or 500 rubles, the co-pilot - 600 or 450 rubles, the flight technician and the flight engineer - 500 or 400 rubles ^[17] .

The total length of the route from Fairbanks to Krasnoyarsk was 6500 km, of which 5000 km across the territory of the USSR. From the factory in the USA to the front in the USSR, the aircraft had to overcome up to 14,000 km.

According to the division’s report, 7908 single-engine and twin-engine aircraft were delivered along the Alsib route. Bombers: B-25 - 729 pieces, A-20 - 1355. Fighters: P-40 - 47, P-39 - 2616, P-63 - 2396, P-47 - 3 pieces. Transport C-47 - 707, C-46 - 1 and 54 training At-6 ^{[13] [approx. 1]} .

Not only aircraft were distilled along the route, but they also transported various cargoes: military equipment, gold, mica (506 tons), food, equipment for hospitals, office supplies, mail (including 187 tons of diplomatic mail), as well as hatching eggs, prostheses , needles for sewing machines, spare parts for watches and more.

Alsib’s highway was crossed by diplomats and military experts. Ambassadors of the USSR to the USA M. M. Litvinov and A. A. Gromyko , American generals, and in 1944, US Vice President Henry Wallace flew along the highway.

During its existence - from October 1942 to October 1945 - 128,371 passengers were transported along the air route, of which 17,322 paid, 18,753 tons of cargo, including 9,125 tons of paid and 319 tons of mail ^[12] .

279 flight accidents occurred on the Soviet section of the route, including 39 accidents, 49 accidents, 131 breakdowns and 60 emergency landings. Killed 114 people. The largest was the disaster of Li-2 of the 5th ferry regiment that happened on November 17, 1942 at the Krasnoyarsk airport , in which 30 people died (according to other sources - 20).

Causes of losses: difficult weather conditions, poor weather conditions, design flaws and manufacturing defects (for this reason, 8 cars were lost), incomplete preparation for the departure of materiel (7 cars lost), poor piloting technique in difficult weather conditions (18 aircraft lost), lack of discipline of the flight crew ( 8 aircraft lost), poor organization of flights (9 aircraft lost).

• Mazuruk, Ilya Pavlovich
• Semenov, Ilya Sergeevich
• Shevelev, Mark Ivanovich

On November 5, 1944, the 1st Air Division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner .

• Memorial in Alaska .
• A small copy of the Fairbanks Memorial (Alaska, USA) in Yakutsk, DOSAAF Museum.
• The memorial at the airport of Yakutsk over the burial place of the crew of the B-25 bomber that crashed in the vicinity of the city on May 7, 1943, with the names of 113 pilots killed on the tracks and a memorial plaque on the building of the international airport sector.
• Fighter R-39 "AeroCobra" on a pedestal in Yakutsk in the square named after Gagarin.
• Fighter R-39 "AeroCobra" on a pedestal at the airport of Olekminsk (Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)).
• A memorial in the city park of Kirensk on Lenin Street, dedicated to the heroes of Alsib.
• A memorial obelisk in Kadykchan on the grave of pilots who crashed into A-20 : Captain I. A. Kovylin, Sergeant N. D. Boriskin and navigator Captain D. V. Mikhasev ^[19] .
• Exposition “AlSib Secret Track” of the Lyceum Museum No. 11, Krasnoyarsk.
• The project of the school museum of the Lyceum No. 11 of the city of Krasnoyarsk “ Raise aircraft, return names ... ”
• The plaque in Krasnoyarsk on the house on the street. Vavilova, 35, dedicated to Alsib.
• Monument on the mass grave of 30 pilots who died on November 17, 1942 in Krasnoyarsk ( Trinity Cemetery ).
• Alaska-Siberia Research Center , Juneau , USA ( Alaska-Siberia Research Center) .
• Monument to the dead pilots of the C-47 crew in the Egvekinot , sculptor K. Dobriev.
• Monument Alsib in Ust-Kut

• Feature film "Drive" , dir. Alexander Rogozhkin, 2006
• Documentary film “Alsib. Secret track ”, T. Proskuryakova, script: Svetlana Rodina, director: Anastasia Popova, 2012 ^[20] .
• Documentary film “Alsib. Chronicle of courage ” , producer - Alexander Dobrynin. Filmed by the Rakurs-A film company, Yakutsk, 2012.

• L.I. Gorbunova, E.V. Kutakov, N.F. Shkarev. The sky without borders: essays, memories. - Krasnoyarsk: Russian Encyclopedia, 1995 .-- 349 p. - 10,000 copies.
• Ivanyan E.A. Encyclopedia of Russian-American Relations. XVIII-XX centuries. - Moscow: International Relations, 2001. - 696 p. - ISBN 5-7133-1045-0 .
• Kotelnikov V. R. Aviation Lend-Lease. - M .: Russian Knights Foundation, 2015. - 368 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 985-5-9906036-3-9.
• Nugenbly I. Ye. Alaska - Siberia: Above the tundra and taiga: [photo album]. - Yakutsk: Bichik, 2005 .-- 112 p.
• Airway "Krasnoyarsk - Uelkal" ("Alaska - Siberia"): yesterday, today, tomorrow: materials scientific. conf. - Krasnoyarsk, 2007 .-- 121 p.
• Mazuruk I.P. Arctic Circle. Air Bridge Alaska - Siberia = Almanac. - M. , 1978.
• Negenbly I. E. The route of courage and friendship = Collection. - Yakutsk, 1992.
• NEGENBLY I.E. ALASKA - SIBERIA. The track of courage. - Yakutsk, 2000.
• A. Pochtarev, L. Gorbunova. Polar aviation of Russia. 1914-1945 - Paulsen, 2011.
• Yaroslavtsev V.A. Sky without borders . - Krasnoyarsk.

• Memoirs of the driver Leifman M. A
• Memoirs of the mechanic Alexei Uranov
• International Scientific and Practical Conference "Alsib-60"
• Lend-Lease. History of the Alsib route (Alaska-Siberia)