1940-1945

Pan Am “Cannonball” operation provides a lifeline to China

The rise of air transport in World War II

For some months after the U.S. became an active participant in World War II, the role that was to be played by long-range air transportation was still not immediately apparent. It wasn’t until large backlogs of supplies needed at the front began to build up at ports of embarkation that the idea of air transport as a crucial instrument of wartime logistics became a clear priority, one which would involve making use of the aircraft, personnel and facilities of civil airlines.

Creation of the Air Transport Command (ATC)

In June of 1942, the Air Corps Ferrying Command (established in May 1941 to deliver Lend Lease aircraft to the British) was renamed the Air Transport Command. Effective July 1, 1942, the ATC’s mission was enlarged to include the ferrying of all aircraft within the United States and to destinations outside of the United States as directed by the Commanding General, Army Air Forces. The control, operation, and maintenance of establishments and facilities on air routes outside of the United States also fell within its purview and it was responsible for the transportation by air of personnel, materiel, and mail for all War Department agencies, except those served by Troop Carrier units.

Pan Am joins the war effort

On November 1, 1942, operations of both Pan American Airways-Africa Ltd. and Pan American Air Ferries were taken over by the Army Air Transport Command. Days later, on November 8th, the first wave of American soldiers to be sent to Africa–the first major Allied invasion of the war involving U.S. ground forces against Axis troops–took place. Heavy pressure was put on the Air Transport Command to supply close and continuous support to the troops.

Africa-Orient Division is formed

Almost overnight, on November 10, 1942, Pan American Airways became the ATC’s largest civilian contractor, instructed to relieve Army flight personnel at Natal, on the northeast coast of Brazil, by November 16th. Military contract operations were now to be concentrated in a single, Miami-based division called the Africa-Orient Division headed by Division Manager Humphrey W. Toomey (previously PAA Division Engineer/Eastern Division), reporting to PAA Vice President (and former Pan American Airways-Africa-Ltd. general manager) Franklin Gledhill. The new division set up offices in the Dupont Building in downtown Miami and at the NW 36th Street Airport. A huge new double hangar, inaugurated on September 15, 1943, was built to accommodate the additional maintenance and office space needed for Pan Am’s wartime collaboration with the Army Transport Command.

The “Cannonball” route to India and beyond

The service quickly became known as the “Cannonball,” due to the speed at which men and supplies were transported to the front. The route to Africa was flown by Pan Am pilots by way of Miami to Natal, in Brazil, and then across the south Atlantic to Ascension Island and on to Accra, on Africa’s Gold Coast. From there, Cannonball crews headed to Khartoum, Cairo, Karachi and India, where cargo was transferred to CNAC pilots (Pan Am’s joint venture with the Chinese government, Chinese National Aviation Corporation), and flown by CNAC across the “Hump” of the Himalayas in Burma to China, where supplies were desperately needed. The 11,500-mile journey from Miami to India was made in three and a half days.

The service has been widely recognized as critical in keeping China provided with a lifeline of essential wartime defense supplies that saved it from falling to Japan.

PAA Cannonball crews endure hardships, give their all

The Chief Pilot for the Division was Hal Goodwin. Others included Pan Am veterans Basil Rowe, Vic Wright and Robin MacGlohn. The Pan Am pilots wore uniforms similar to those of the Army Transport Command so that if they were shot down, they would be treated as prisoners of war and not spies. Many were Naval reserve officers and/or Army Air Force reserve officers.

In an interview recorded in the 1960s, former Africa-Orient Division Manager Humphrey Toomey recounted that within hours after receiving word that the Africa-Orient Division was to relieve the Army in Natal, two B-24 Liberator bombers landed in Miami. “Also in those very hours, a hurricane was moving in on Miami. The group of pilots that I called — it was on the basis of personal friendship — went out and got into those B-24s and took them off, literally, in a hurricane to familiarize themselves with them.”

Adapting was a challenge for the Pan Am crews because the Army’s aircraft were often not as well maintained as Pan Am’s planes nor did the Army’s planes have the direction-finding equipment that was standard in all Pan Am planes flying transoceanic routes. Fortunately, Pan Am Miami ground crews were able to install Pan Am direction-finding equipment in the Army planes in time to meet their November 16th deadline.

The tale of “Tail Heavy Tillie”

The first flight of the “Cannonball service” was inaugurated on the night of November 15th. Three B-24s and two C-54 transports–a small aerial armada manned by Pan Am flight crews–took off across the South Atlantic from Natal in a stunning display of coordinated air power.

As recounted by Toomey, the bomb bay doors of the B-24s came in very handy on the return trip. Said Toomey, “I came back from Accra in a B-24 I called the ‘Tail Heavy Tillie.’ It caught fire some time after Ascension Island. It had 3000 lbs. of quartz crystal on board. McKinney, the copilot, probably saved our lives. He hopped back quickly and shut off the fluids to the motor — no more gas, oil, hydraulic fluid. The engine burned out. Part of the wing burned — the aileron. We lost altitude. We could see it wasn’t going to make it, because so much lift had been lost on the side where the motor burned. The aileron had to be held over so hard, to keep that wing up, that it made a lot of drag. About 100 miles out of Ascension, MacGlohn and I talked it over VERY BRIEFLY. Decided to get rid of the quartz crystals. The navigator Hewes and I opened the bomb bay doors and pushed the load out (they were in wooden boxes; they sort of rolled out). We staggered onto the runway, and I mean we just made it with the three engines roaring. We couldn’t have gone two more miles. The pilots, as they were very, very vocal in telling me, did have a point about the condition of the equipment!”

At left: Africa-Orient “Cannonball” pilots, crew members and Division Manager Humphrey Toomey (bottom row, far right).

Night flights deter deadly submarine attacks

After numerous incidents involving being shot at by German submarines, flights from Natal across the South Atlantic were generally timed to take off at night, with landing being made at dawn at Ascension Island. The air was also cooler at night, which made take off in the heavy planes easier on the engines. Pan Am pilots used to flying boats had to struggle to adapt to the longer take-offs. However, while schedules were set, the primary objective was to keep the planes moving, and they operated when they were ready and loaded.

Cannonball aircraft

DC3s were sometimes used between Miami and Natal, but the main aircraft used over the route were the Army’s Douglas C-54 Skymasters, B-24 Liberators and, eventually, C-87s. Base maintenance in Miami was performed by Pan Am’s Eastern Division maintenance crews while line maintenance was handled by Africa-Orient crews.

Above: Images courtesy UM Richter Library Special Collections, H. W. Toomey papers.

America’s secret lifeline

Africa-Orient’s “Cannonball” service has been called the most tremendous air transport operation ever conducted by a commercial airline, in number of big planes and totals of passengers and cargo carried. But because of the secret nature of Africa-Orient’s operations, the men got no publicity, no medals, or glory. The supply lines they kept open were one of America’s greatest secret weapons.

By April 1945, the Africa-Orient Division was able to announce the completion of 5000 transatlantic ocean crossings since its inception in November of 1942. The last flight of the Africa Orient Division war contract service was flown on June 20, 1946.