Project Cedar (also known as Operation Cedar, short for "Civilian Emergency Defence Aid to Russia"1) was a World War II project to deliver short-range aircraft from the United States to the USSR via Abadan, Iran, in the Persian Gulf.2
The project was initiated before the United States' entry into the war,1 a base was established on Abadan Island in March 1942. Oil tankers, returning from delivering oil to the United States, would take Bell P-39, Curtiss P-40, and Douglas A-20 parts to Abadan, where they were assembled into aircraft and flown to USSR. The 82nd Air Depot Group was part of Project Cedar.2 The head of the project on the Soviet side was Leonid Ivanovich Zorin.3
Another similarly secret operation, Project 19, was set up in Gura,1 Eritrea, to repair RAF aircraft.456
References
References
- T. H. Vail Motter, ed. (1952). United States Army in World War II: Middle East Theatre, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia. Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History Department of the Army. p. 125.
- Carol Adele Kelly, ed. (2007). Voices of My Comrades: America's Reserve Officers Remember World War II. New York City: Fordham University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-8232-2823-2.
- T. H. Vail Motter, ed. (1952). United States Army in World War II: Middle East Theatre, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia. Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History Department of the Army. p. 129.
- "Project 19 - US repair base for British aircraft in Eritrea ", American Military History site
- "Boeing & Douglas: A History of Customer Service", Boeing.com
- "Episode in Eritrea", Evening Post, 25 July 1945