Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

This from GP:

"In The Big L: American Logistics in World War II ed. Alan Gropman, there are three maps showing these routes.

The North Atlantic Routes

There were basically three routes to the UK, although they had a number of branching sub-routes. The primary one began at Presque Isle, Maine. Its southern branch ran to Gander, Newfoundland and from there either directly to Mutts Corner, N. Ireland or to the Azores and from there to St. Mawgan in Cornwall. The northern branch ran to Goose Bay, Labrador and from there either direct to Prestwick, Scotland or to one of three bases on Greenland, thence to Reykjavik, Iceland and then to Prestwick.

The northwestern route to the UK began at Great Falls, Montana and ran The Pas, Canada to Churchill to Frobisher Bay, thence to Greenland, Iceland, and Prestwick.

The southern route to the UK began at Miami, Florida and ran Bermuda, Azores, St. Mawgan. N.B., after November, 1942, flights from the Azores could also go to Marrakech, Morocco for use in the MTO.

The South Atlantic Routes

This one began at Homestead AFB in Florida and ran to Borinquen in Puerto Rico, then to Waller in Trinidad, then to Atkinson, British Guiana, to Belem, Brazil, to Natal, Brazil, then either directly to Roberts, Liberia or to Ascension Island and then to Roberts or to Accra, Gold Coast, and from there across Equatorial Africa to Egypt. But from Roberts, they flew up the West African coast to the Med.

The Pacific Air Routes

I'm not quite clear what you mean here by the Far East, but anything headed to India and the CBI would have gone by the South Atlantic Route via Egypt and the Middle East. But in the case of planes to be deployed to the Pacific, it would take one of the following routes.

All routes begin in California. The map shows them originating in San Francisco, but I believe Los Angeles and San Diego were also used. From California, the route goes to Hawaii. There it branches into a southern and a northern route. The southern route goes to Christmas Island. There it branches further into a northern-southern route and a southern-southern route. The southern-southern route goes from Christmas Island to Penrhyn Island, to the Cook Islands, to the Tonga Islands, to Norfolk Island, thence to Sydney, Australia. The northern-southern route goes from Christmas Island to Phoenix Island, to Ellice Island, to Fiji, to New Caledonia, thence to Townsville, Australia. Note that there were many, many subsidiary branchings and destinations as the front moved and new bases were captured or built.

The northern route runs through the Central Pacific from Hawaii to Midway, to Wake, to the Marianas to the Phillipines. Obviously this was unavailable throughout most of the war.

There was also an important air route through Canada and Alaska to Siberia. Tens of thousands of aircraft moved on that route to the USSR. I believe that was the most important air route to the USSR. If you wish details on that though, it will have to wait until I can dig out the book that is specifically devoted to it.

It should be noted that these routes were used mostly by bombers and other long range aircraft. Fighters and other single-seat aircraft were almost entirely moved by ship although some fighters used the North Atlantic Routes."