When the Japanese captured the Burmese town of Lashio in 1942, they effectively cut off the last major Allied supply route into China. Allied commanders devised a daring plan to supply China and the Allied forces via an air route from India. From April 1942 to August 1945, American transport planes from the 10th Air Force and later Air Transport Command made daily flights over the Eastern Himalayan Mountains from India to China, a perilous route that American pilots soon nicknamed “the Hump.” It was the first sustained, around-the-clock, all-weather, long-range military aerial supply line in history.
For the pilots, flying the Hump presented numerous challenges. The airfields in northeastern India from which the planes embarked were well within the range of enemy bombers. Once in the air, they faced the constant threat of attack by fighters. Additionally, Hump pilots faced threats from nature. In the middle of their path stood the Himalayas, which reached over 19,500 feet at the highest parts of the Hump route. On both sides of the mountains were dense, impenetrable jungles. Erratic weather patterns made flying especially dangerous, particularly when the monsoon season brought heavy rains and sudden thunderstorms. Another critical problem was finding aircraft capable of carrying heavy cargo at the high altitudes required. By the end of the war, 594 planes were lost or unaccounted for, and 1,314 air crewmen and passengers were killed.
Despite the tremendous toll, the airlift accomplished its mission of providing supplies to China. From its inception in April of 1942 to its last flight in August of 1945, the airlift delivered approximately 650,000 tons of material to China, ensuring that China had the supplies necessary to continue fighting.
View of the mountains along the Hump route. Source: CNAC pilot Gifford Bull
Highly trained units of the Chinese forces have occasionally taken to the air as a means of transportation to vital areas of the Far Eastern war front. Transport planes of the India-China Wing, U.S. Army Air Forces Air Transport Command, have been pressed to use for this operation. These soldiers of a Chinese Army unit are seated before a final check just prior to taking off in a plane of the India-China Wing, Air Transport Command, U.S. Army Air Force. Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Chinese troops who will be flown to the Burma frontier to fight with General Joseph W. Stilwell's forces board a Curtiss C-46 at Yunnanyi Air Base in China. 1944. Source: National Archives and Records Administration; http://www.fold3.com/image/29016776/
With the Japanese advancing steadily in China and war-weary allied forces falling back, the logical solution to stop this onslaught was to relieve the 14th Chinese Division from their duties in Burma and take them quickly to the front in China. The first major action on this movement was on December 5, 1944 when Douglas C-47s of the last 1st and 2nd Air Commando Groups along with the 10th Combat Cargo flew 36 sorties from Myitkyina, Burma to Chan Yi, China. The operation lasted from December 5 to December 11 and a total of 2,700 Chinese officers and enlisted men and all their equipment were flown into China to fight for their own land. Here Chinese troops rest beside the C-47s that brought them over The Hump. Source: National Archives and Records Administration
U.S. Army Air Force flyers transport Chinese troops on their task missions. This photo shows the interior of a Douglas C-53 with its complement of Chinese troops en route to India. Source: National Archives and Records Administration; http://www.fold3.com/image/28851863/
CNAC C-47 on a Hump mission. Source: CNAC pilot Gifford Bull
Chinese soldiers eat their last meal on the soil of China before being flown over the Hump in a plane of the Air Transport Command, U.S. Army Air Forces. Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Chinese troops who will be flown to the Burma frontier to fight with General Joseph W. Stilwell's forces board a Curtiss C-46 at Yunnanyi Air Base in China. 1944. Source: National Archives and Records Administration; http://www.fold3.com/image/29016776/
Chinese employees at an airfield near Chungking give a helping hand to enlisted women of the first Wac Detachment to arrive in the China theater following their first trip over The Hump. Source: National Archives and Records Administration; http://www.fold3.com/image/29016927/
Three soldiers of a Chinese Army unit that may be likened to airborne infantry examine the insignia on the back of an American airman on the India-China Wing, Air Transport Command, U.S. Army Air Force, who will fly them to points where they may be needed. The insignia is used as identification should the airmen be forced down in the parts of China where the people are unfamiliar with Americans. Source: National Archives and Records Administration; http://www.fold3.com/image/1/28851865/
The Hump under the wing of a CNAC transport. Source: CNAC pilot Gifford Bull
