Film Friday:
Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5MX; Film: Kodak 120, Ektar 100
Category Archives: photography
ALSIB Air Route
Fim Friday:
Alaska – Siberia Monument
Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5MX; Film: Kodak 120, T-Max 100
Unknown First Family
Film Friday:
“Unknown First Family”, Golden Heart Plaza, Fairbanks
Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5MX; Film: Kodak 120, TMax100
Lend-Lease Monument
Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5MX; Film: Kodak 120, TMax100
The Lend-Lease Monument is located in Griffin Park, downtown Fairbanks, near Golden Heart Plaza, alongside the Chena River.
The Lend-Lease Act was originally passed in March 1941, with the Soviet Union being added to the program in October of the same year. The Northwest Staging Route, from the mainland of the U.S. through Canada and into Alaska, was extended into the Soviet Union with the Alaska-Siberian Airway (ALSIB).
Map of ALSIB; cell phone photo
Planes were ferried from locations like Buffalo, NY; Minneapolis, MN; St Louis, MO; and Oklahoma City, OK to Great Falls, MT. Airfields were carved out of the wilderness from Montana through Canada and on to Ladd Field in Fairbanks. Most airfields were built 100 miles apart, with the longest being between Fort Nelson, BC and Liard River, which was 140 miles. The Alaska Highway would soon be completed linking the airfields together by road.
The first Soviet pilots landed in Nome on 14 August 1942. The Soviets took over the aircraft at either Ladd Field in Fairbanks or at Nome, then flew across the Bering Strait to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia.
Over 8000 aircraft flew through Ladd Field in Fairbanks on their way to the Soviet Union. Between October 1941 and the end of May 1945 the U.S. provided the USSR with nearly a half-million vehicles other than aircraft, 2 million tons of gasoline and oil, and close to 4.5 million tons of food. Of the 8000 aircraft, 133 were lost. The average time to ferry an aircraft to the Soviet Union was 33 days.
Some of the aircraft ferried:
The Bell P-39 Airacobra, followed by the P-63 Kingcobra its successor, the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, and Rebublic P-47 Thunderbolt. Bombers ferried included the Douglas A-20 Havoc and North American’s B-25 Mitchell. Most of the transports ferried were the Douglas C-47 Skytrain.
“The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation… it must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.”
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Air North
Beechcraft Model 18
This Beechcraft Model 18 aircraft was manufactured in 1943, and used as a military trainer during the latter years of WWII. After the war, it was bought by Air North for both cargo and passenger transport in Interior Alaska. The aircraft is now on display outside the Pioneer Air Museum in Fairbanks.
Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5MX; Film: Kodak 120, Ektar 100
USS Croaker
Buffalo and Erie County Naval Military Park
USS Croaker 246
The USS Croaker, a Gato class submarine was launched on this date in 1943. The Croaker received three battle stars for its service during WWII. One of three ships I toured while in Buffalo, New York at the military park at Canalside.
Camera: Leica M3; Film: Kodak 35mm, T-Max 100
Temperature Inversions
Still open water on the Chena River, downtown Fairbanks
One of the endearing quirks of Fairbanks is the temperature inversions we experience every winter.
On Monday morning, the bottom of Goldstream Valley was -15F, while the top of Cleary Summit was +27F.
That’s a 42F degree differential from two places only 15 road miles apart, but a 900′ elevation gain.
Temps around Fairbanks Monday morning; Map credit: @AlaskaWx
3pm Sunsets
How does the old saying go? Red skies at afternoon, sailors miss the spittoon (?); find a lagoon (?); go full moon (?).
It seems I’ve forgotten the third part of the rhyme.
Creative Commons
Circle to Circle is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Like the Stories & Photos? Help Keep the Rover Rolling.
