Air Transport Command

Air Transport Command (ATC) controlled the US Army Air Forces' world-wide system of air transport. Originally known as the US Air Corps Ferrying Command, established in May 1941 to deliver Lend-Lease aircraft to the UK, it was renamed Air Transport Command in June 1942. Its aircraft (which could become troop carriers or air ambulances when not flying freight, passengers, or mail) and its organization were based on, and developed from, US civil airlines such as Pan American. Its principal aircraft were the twin-engined Douglas DC3, the Dakota, called the C47 in military parlance (C53 when a passenger plane), the four-engined DC4 (C54), and the twin-engined Curtiss C46 (Commando). Converted bombers were also used, the B24 Liberator, designated C87 (C109 when a tanker), being the most important.

Through its wing organizations overseas ATC retained control over local base troops and installations (though not over crews and their aircraft passing through). This ran counter to the principle of unified command but the theatre commander could, and sometimes did, draw on ATC transport in an emergency when his own troop carrier forces became overloaded (see Mountbatten). The basis of ATC's operations was running what amounted to a number of major airlines which spanned the world and linked the US with every theatre of war. For example, the South Atlantic route, which linked the USA with Liberia and British West Africa via the Caribbean, Brazil, and Ascension Island, fed Lend-Lease aircraft to the British (see Takoradi air route) and to the USSR via Persia. The 3,555 km. (2,210 mi.) north-west air route, was inaugurated to ensure reinforcement of Alaska when it appeared the Japanese might invade (see Aleutian Islands) and it later delivered Lend-Lease aircraft to the USSR.

ATC's maximum strength was 200,000 men and 3,700 aircraft. Its achievements included such vital supply operations as those which sustained the Chinese war effort over the Hump and British resistance to the Japanese Imphal offensive in March 1944. In one month alone ( July 1945) it flew 275,000 passengers and 100,000 tons of cargo, and it ferried more than a quarter of a million aircraft and evacuated more than 300,000 sick and wounded personnel. ATC was a crucial part of Allied logistics which contributed a new dimension to 20th-century warfare. See alsoAtlantic Ferry Organization.