A BASE MOST SECRET

Air Classics, May 2004 by Hulett, George

NEW BOOKS FOR THE AVIATION ENTHUSIAST

How America built an important air base before Pearl Harbor

World War Two was two years old, America was officially neutral, and by mid-1941, Britain was being pushed to the brink of disaster in North Africa. Time was in short supply and so were the combat-ready aircraft needed by Britain and its allies.

Churchill dealt with President Roosevelt in getting some additional help and Roosevelt authorized the construction of a secret Air Depot to be built and operated by American civilian volunteers under the direction of the Douglas Aircraft Company. Given the name Project 19, the base was 1100-mi from the front lines - located in remote Eritrea in eastern Aircraft. This new base would repair and modify hundreds of damaged Lend-Lease fighters and bombers for the RAF - all in utmost secrecy.

Project 19 by John Swancara (available from the author at 5 Honeysuckle Ridge Rd., Pisgah Forest, NC 28768, $29.95) details this amazing project which was well underway when 7 December 1941 drastically changed the importance of the mission. More than 2500 civilians established an entire American city that repaired and assembled hundreds of P-40s for the USAAF. Project 19 went on to repair B-24s and B-17s as well as developing critical fixes and modifications.

With the defeat of Rommel and the Afrika Korps, the importance of Project 19 dropped and by December 1943, the project was totally dismantled and shipped to India to be reassembled and used to fight the Japanese Empire. The war was still a long way from being over.

The book describes, with numerous personal accounts, the chronology of events leading up to Project 19 as well as an in-depth report on the lives of the workers and the effects of their work on the combat missions of the USAAF in North Africa.