In the summer of 2020, an American team will fly the historic Alaska-Sibera (ALSIB) air route to pay tribute to American and Allied war veterans.
Cameras will follow the epic journey to create a documentary film series on the historic flight, according to officials with the Bravo 369 Foundation.
Pilots from both the United States and Russia are preparing to fly ALSIB in World War II aircraft “to honor the brave men and women of the United States, Canada, Russia, and our other Allied nations as part of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II,” foundation officials said.
“We selected this route to draw attention to this little-known aspect of World War II history,” said Jeff Geer, president and chairman of the BRAVO 369 Flight Foundation. “Few people know that the United States and the former Soviet Union were once Allies. In fact, even fewer know that between 1942 and 1945 nearly 8,000 military aircraft were flown from the United States to Russia using the ALSIB air route. This program played a pivotal role in the war, yet its full and comprehensive story remains to be told.”
Aircraft delivered to Russia during World War II included:
- Bell P-39 Airacobra: 2,618
- Bell P-63 Kingcobra: 2,397
- Curtiss C-46 Commando: 1
- Curtiss P-40 Warhawk: 48
- Douglas A-20 Boston/Havoc: 1,363
- Douglas C-47 Skytrain: 710
- North American AT-6 Texan: 54
- North American B-25 Mitchell: 732
- Republic P-47 Thunderbolt: 3
In 2015, BRAVO 369 teamed with Russian flight partner, RUSAVIA, to fly the extremely challenging 6,000-mile air route stretching from Great Falls, Montana, through western Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska, and then across Siberia to Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
The ALSIB route was created under the Lend-Lease Act, which was enacted by the United States Congress in March 1941 just before the United States entered World War II. Under Lend-Lease, American factories, just emerging from the Great Depression, were rapidly converted to industrial powerhouses creating an “Arsenal of Democracy” to fight the Axis powers and overtake the highly advanced military technologies of both Germany and Japan.
During the “The Great Patriotic War,” as it is known in Russia, Lend-Lease and the ALSIB program was a vital link in helping the Soviets defeat the Nazis who had invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941.
From July through August 2020, BRAVO 369 will undertake this historic flight, known as ALSIB 2020, beginning in Great Falls, Montana — the original staging base for ALSIB operations — travel through Canada and Alaska, and then into Russia.
“Although our team flew the route in 2015, we plan to fly it again not only to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, but also to create a documentary film series telling the complete story of the Lend-Lease program, American-Soviet allied cooperation during the war, and the great importance that the ALSIB air route played in defeating the Nazis,” Geer said.
“Even though the geopolitical landscape is much different than it was 75 years ago, citizen diplomacy and projects like this are embraced by both the people and governments of our countries,” he continued. “Perhaps examples such as this can lead to improved diplomatic relations.”
On Aug. 9, 2019, The BRAVO 369 Flight Foundation revealed that the Russian Geographical Society has joined the efforts to make the commemorative flight a reality.
“The Russian Geographical Society pays great attention to the subject of Lend-Lease,” said Nikolay Kasimov, first vice president of the Russian Geographical Society.
He added that RSG members recently discovered on the Yamal Peninsula a C-47 Douglas aircraft, one of the few remaining aircraft delivered to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program.
“Now we are restoring the aircraft,” he added.
“ALSIB 2020 promises to be a landmark event as this is the last major commemoration that will be attended by our remaining veterans who served in the war,” Geer said. “It is a worthy undertaking; a noble cause that will help bring together the people of Russia and the United States by reminding us all of the shared sacrifice and cooperation in World War II.”
The documentary film series “Warplanes to Siberia – Code Name ASLIB” is expected to begin production in late 2019 with release expected in late 2021.
I think many Americans these days think that the U.S. Army defeated the Germans in WWII. We certainly played a major role in that defeat, but the bulk of the work in defeating the German army was done by the Russian army. Just look at the statistics. The U.S. Army had 276,655 KIA in Europe/North Africa. By contrast, the Russian army had 10,725,345 military KIA. The lend/lease program described in this article played an important role in helping the Russians. The industrial might of the U.S. was key in providing the war materiel the Russians needed to defeat the Germans.
By the same token, Russians think that WW2 was won by the Soviet Union alone and that allies were insignificant and useless. Even today, the contributions of the Americans and the Lend-Lease program are disputed by the majority of Russian historians and government.
The suggestion to look at the losses as a measure of one country’s contribution to WW2 is misleading and inconsistent with facts. Germany has lost 3.1 million soldiers on all fronts, not just the East. Does it mean that they did not participate in the war as much as the Soviet Union? Perhaps the vast losses by the USSR can be attributed to other factors.
The statistics I found online show that the German Army lost 3.6 million KIA on the Eastern Front. On the other hand, they only lost about 750,000 on all other fronts. It seems pretty clear that it was the Eastern Front, i.e. Russia, that was primarily responsible for defeating the German Army. They took out far more German soldiers than we did. I am not trying to minimize the U.S. contribution to the war. It could be argued that if the U.S. hadn’t supplied all that war materiel to Russia, and if we hadn’t opened the second front, Germany may have been able to defeat the Russians. Ultimately, that would have been a disaster for the U.S. Hitler’s long-term plans included going to war with the United States after he established his empire in Europe.
I’ve sourced the number from Wikipedia, a reviewed source but the numbers offered in the above post only differ slightly and do not change the 3:1 loss ratio that the Soviets have suffered. That said, you are still arguing a secondary point.
The main fact remains: Russians despise the fact that USA gave them SO much in WW2(and in 1921 and even as recently as 1990’s). New school history textbooks have removed any mention of US help. On the main TV channel, hosts talk about turning the US into “atomic dust”. Their president addresses the nation and shows a video of cluster nuclear rockets targeting Florida! This is the atmosphere the Russians live in.
This is why Bravo 369’с Alaska-Siberia flight is SO important! We need to remind regular Russian people that we’re not the enemy. We were friends before and we can be friends again! Governments come and go but people remain and Russian people are very much like us, very much like us.
The fact that Russia is so subjective about what happened in World War II doesn’t mean we can’t be objective about it. We can’t make the Russian government officially acknowledge the U.S. contribution to the war, but that doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge the Russian contribution. That is one of the differences between them and us. Besides, I work with a man from Russia. When I mentioned that I knew that it was his country that defeated Germany in World War II, he said they couldn’t have done it without the help they got from the United States. The Russian government can spin it and propagandize it, but the Russian people still know the truth. At least, some of them do.