The board’s first report was submitted to both governments on October 4, 1940, just as General Arnold’s part-travelogue, part-military briefing was hitting the streets in National Geographic Magazine. The PJBD report dealt primarily with improvements to the Atlantic coastal defenses of both countries, but it also recommended that a chain of landing fields capable of handling military aircraft, including heavy bombers, be established on a route across northwest Canada between the United States and Alaska. Further elaborated six weeks later, this recommendation called for a series of bases in
...more
