Project Cedar (also known as Operation Cedar[citation needed], 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] 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.[4][5][6]