From Wikipedia.
Back on June 21st, I wrote about the remains of a World War II airman which were found two years ago in a Canadian River. he died as a result of a crash during an operation called "Crimson Route." I'd never heard of it, so research was in order.
The "Crimson Route was a set of joint U.S.-Canadian planned for ferry planes and material from North America to Europe. It ended in 1943, never being fully developed.
In 1940, with the Fall of France and the Battle of Britain, Americans feared that Britain might fall which would move the Axis closer to our shores. Even thought the United States was not then at war, it had adopted a "hemispheric defense" and began planning air fields and air routes in the Arctic.
When Denmark fell in April, the U.S. took control of Greenland
The first route went from Newfoundland to Labrador, Greenland, Iceland to Britain.
The passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, meant that large numbers of American aircraft were to be transferred to Britain. The urgency increased as losses at sea multiplied as Hitler's U-boat campaign took hold. Eventually, three routes were selected.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
I only recently learned that the Crimson Route was the name of the project to which my father, John A. Larsson, was attached during World War II. He was an enlisted non-com who served in the medical unit attached to this project. He had spoken a number of times about being in The Pas and Churchill, Manitoba, as well as on Southampton Island in Hudson Bay--all bases for the "western route" section.
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