Operation Rusty
Operation Rusty, also referred to as Project Rusty, was an American top-secret airborne reconnaissance program carried out over North Africa and the Middle East during the spring of 1942. It is notable for many reasons, but especially because the driving force in the operation was Major Elliott Roosevelt, who acted in direct consultation with his father, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Chief of Staff of the Army, George Marshall, and the Air Forces commander, General Henry “Hap” Arnold. Planning American plans to invade North Africa germinated in early 1942 (Operation Gymnast, which later became Operation Torch). Simultaneously became apparent the critical necessity of airborne logistics via Brazil, Africa, and the Middle East in order to supply the USSR, China, and even Australia. Mapping and reconnaissance of the affected areas, which were then in danger of being lost to the Axis, was given the highest priority. In February 1942, Colonel Paul T. Cullen and Captain Elliott Roosevelt were ordered to conduct aerial photographic reconnaissance staging out of Accra in the Gold Coast (later Ghana). Cullen was a mapping specialist in charge of the United States Army Air Forces 1st Mapping Group, Bolling Field, D.C. Captain Roosevelt had just completed his navigator’s training, and had in the previous summer obtained surveys of the North Atlantic ferry route in direct support of President Roosevelt’s and Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s urgent requirements. He had briefed the Allies on his project during the Argentia (Atlantic Charter) summit in August 1941, and had specifically advocated for the African route while visiting Churchill in England. Under the aegis of the “special flight,” 1st Mapping Group, two Boeing B-17Bs were modified to fly at extreme altitudes and very long ranges. They were painted blue to minimize contrast with the sky, stripped of all unnecessary weight, and any identification marks were removed. The United States was not at war with Vichy-controlled French West Africa, and the overflights would be illegal. Execution B-17B tail number 38-223, under the command of Captain Lovell S. Stuber, departed from Puerto Rico, for Trinidad on 9 April 1942. It then disappeared with the assumed loss of all on board. Theories held that the aircraft missed its destination and impacted high mountains in Venezuela. The second aircraft is assumed by investigators to have been #39-5, which is officially listed (cryptically) as having crashed outside of the United States and having been stricken from inventory in 1942. Colonel Cullen was in charge, while Captain Roosevelt (who was not a pilot) concentrated on planning the flights and obtaining the photographs. This aircraft, given the nickname "the Blue Goose" proceeded via Brazil across the South Atlantic in April 1942. A support group of about twenty men arrived in Accra via ship. During April, long range missions were conducted over most of North Africa, obtaining imagery of the major French, Spanish, and Italian support points, notably railways, ports, and aerodromes. According to some reports flights were also made as far as Chungking, China, in order to map the Asian