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Takoradi air route

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | 700+ words | Copyright

Takoradi air route, used to fly Allied aircraft reinforcements between the Gold Coast and Egypt, and to ferry Lend-Lease aircraft to the USSR. The route was pioneered between the wars and in 1936 Imperial Airways began running a weekly service over part of it, between Lagos in Nigeria and Khartoum in the Sudan. When Italy entered the war, in June 1940, it was decided to use the route with its series of landing strips to fly reinforcements to the Western Desert Air Force fighting in the Western Desert campaigns. Aircraft were either shipped to Takoradi, assembled there, then flown the 6,450 km. (4,000 mi.) across Africa to Khartoum, and then up to Abu Sueir on the Suez canal near Cairo; or they were flown to Takoradi from the USA using Brazil and Ascension Island as staging posts. The Free French Fezzan campaigns kept the Italians from encroaching on the route's airfields.

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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Takoradi air route." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Takoradi air route." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Takoradiairroute.html

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Takoradi air route." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Takoradiairroute.html

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