Cobras over the Tundra (Paperback)

~ Everett A. Long (Author), Irina Balayeva (Illustrator), Podvig (Photographer), Berezhnoy. V (Photographer), Pestyerev. V (Photographer), Stefansky. V (Photographer), Debabov. D (Photographer), Long. E (Photographer), Negenblya. I (Photographer), Ben Brown (Photographer), USSR Ministry of Civil Aviation Central Archives (Photographer), I. Shabaliana (Editor), O. Mikhaylova (Editor), Tatiana Long Reznik (Editor), Tatiana Gunko (Translator), Elena Sampson (Translator) "During the tragic years of World War II, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were rapidly expanding and bringing the major Nations of the world into..." (more)
Key Phrases: ferrying route, air route, Watson Lake, Soviet Union, Ladd Field (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Cobras Over The Tundra" is a collection short stories and moren than 140 black and white and color photos from both American and Russian sources. Photos never before available to the West are shown for the first time. Pilots from both sides died or suffered difficult rescues in the wildernesses of Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. Printed in both languages, this is their story and history of building the Alaska/Siberia (ALSIB) aerial bridge to fight a common foe - Nazi Germany.

About the Author

Everett A. Long, was a founding member of the Interior and Arctic Alaska Aeronautical Foundation, which established the Alaskaland Pioneer Air Museum in Fairbanks. In June 1990, he became the first American pilot to fly his own airplane (Cessna 172), along the ALSIB route from Fairbanks to Yakutsk. Since 1980, he has been actively writing articles on the air pioneers of Alaska and the Arctic for his own weekly column in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, aviation news publications, and magazines. He directed two searches for the Soviet airplane, N-209 (Commander Sigizmund Levanevsky) which had been missing since August 12, 1937 during the flight from the USSR (Moscow) to the USA (Fairbanks). One search was north east of Old Crow, Northwest Territories, Canada, and the other was through the ice pack off shore of Oliktok point on the North Coast of Alaska. His article concerning the searches for Levanevsky's plane was published in the "Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine".

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Arktika Pub; 2nd edition (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963457810
• ISBN-13: 978-0963457813
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #957,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kobri nad tundroi, August 23, 2003

By	Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The story of the LendLease aircraft program, this book has a unique dual-language format. The first half of the book consists of text, in both English and Russian (on opposite-facing pages). I have a personal interest in this history of the Alaska-Siberia (ALSIB) Ferrying Route, since my mother had served as a civilian air-traffic controller for the program. The second half of the book contains numerous black-and-white photos, with dual language captions, of American and Soviet pilots and personnel at Fairbanks (Ladd Field) and Nome. I hoped to be surprised by a glimpse of my Mom as a beautiful young woman! (Alas, that didn't happen.) In 1999, when I worked for the "World War ll Through Russian Eyes" Exhibit, I met a Russian man whose parents had been ferry pilots for the ALSIB. It was a poignant moment for both of us, to realize that his parents and my mother had likely met on base! And poignant, for me, are the photos in this book of ALSIB personnel -- our parents' colleagues -- at work, or playing music and dancing during off-duty hours! Although not exposed to combat, a ferry pilot's duty was dangerous. Largely unknown to most Americans and Russians were the losses. My aquaintance related to me a tale of tragedy over the tundra. His father, flying a C-47 (Li-2), received the final transmissions from a pair of accompanying Airacobras. Caught in a sudden blizzard, their wings had iced up and they could no longer maintain altitude. The two LendLease warplanes, so precious to the Allied cause, were last seen descending into the inhospitable wilderness. "Cobras Over the Tundra" verifies that this was not an isolated incident. Sixty-eight planes were lost over Alaska, forty-one over Siberia. The book pays tribute to the dozens of courageous aviators who simply disappeared in the treacherous storms over the tundra, taiga, and sea routes. "They sacrificed to the altar of the Great Victory the most priceless thing -- life."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Russian Cobras - how did they get there?, January 30, 2003

By	D. P. Broer (LEIDEN, ZH Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This books tells a relatively unknown story, the story about how American Lend-Lease aircraft were transfered to Russia. From the 14.500-odd planes that went to the Russians during WW2, almost 8.000 went by the ALSIB route (Alaska-Siberia). 2.618 of these were Airacobras, 2.397 of them Kingcobras. This book describes how it was done and by whom, both in English and in Russian. The focus is not on the planes, but on the people from those two great countries who helped each other against their common enemies: the cold and the Germans. Apart from the text, there are also many photo's describing the harsh conditions which both Americans and Russians had to face, most of the depicting the people, but there are some good shots of Airacobra's and Kingcobra's as well, though not as much as I hoped there would be. There is also room enough for other types, you'll find B-25's, A-20's, C-47's, P-40's as well. Good background material for the serious WW2 aircraft historian, giving a look behind the scenes and insight that not many other books about WW2 aviation can hope to match.

3.0 out of 5 stars Cold Cobras, January 18, 2009

By	Ellis B. Bonnell "digger" (Old Washington, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was disappointed in this book. The P39 and P63 were my favorite fighter planes during WWII. I have been interested in getting more information about combat performance of these planes. It was interesting to read about the experiences of the ferry pilots but not much about the actual flying characteristics of the planes.