U.S. military operations in China, Burma, and India (CBI) were relatively little known during World War II, including the Hump Route. In order to support the Sino-Burmese-Indian War of Resistance Against Japan, heroic crew members flew C-47s and other aircraft from India "over the hump" to deliver a large amount of military supplies to China.
In 1942, because Burma's road to China was cut off by the Japanese, the United States was in a hurry to airlift war materiel from an airport in the Indian state of Assam to Kunming, China, and then transport it by truck or plane to Chongqing. The continuous flow of military supplies to China allowed the Chinese Army, the U.S. Army's Fourteenth Air Force, and the Chinese Air Force Contingent to maintain combat effectiveness and hold the Japanese army back from reinforcing its forces in the South Pacific.
Chinatown in the United States supports the march of the Chinese War of Resistance
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="23" > the arched hump of the Himalayas</h1>
The first replenishment mission over Hump took place in April 1942, when the U.S. Army's 10th Air Force in India signed a contract with Pan Am Africa to ship 30,000 gallons of gasoline and 500 gallons of lubricating oil to China.
Regular transportation on the Hump route began in May 1942 with 27 aircraft (modified American Airlines DC-3, C-39 and C-53) and approximately 1,100 personnel from New Malir Air Force Base, a British base in the Sindh Desert about 20 miles east of Karachi in western India.
The route passes through the eastern part of the Himalayas, which is called the "Hump" by pilots. The operation was the first sustained, long-range, 24-hour all-weather military air supply line in history. There is no precedent for this. Even after the opening of alternative ground routes in early 1945, the Hump Route remained the main supply line until the end of the war.
Operation Hump flew more aircraft and cargo on a given route than any other civil airline in the world at the time, and they flew over the world's tallest and most hostile mountain ranges. It crosses the north-south extension of the Himalayas and south through northern Myanmar and western China. At the northernmost point of the extension, the terrain is more than 20,000 feet high. The average elevation is lowered to the south, but no less than 12,000 feet is within about one hundred and forty miles.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > difficult and dangerous hump routes</h1>
The Hump route was initially extremely short of navigation equipment. Due to climatic disturbances and mountain ranges, air route communication is poor, and air traffic control is non-existent except for local control towers. Route maps are also very unreliable, as are weather reports. These conditions did not improve until August 1943, when the U.S. Army Air Communications Service (AACS) was established.
Since the coastline of China and even the entire Southeast Asian coast was occupied by the Japanese army, the Hump route was often intercepted by Japanese aircraft, and its combat losses were higher than the losses of any other non-combat aviation units in World War II, and even exceeded the losses of many combat troops. On the most dangerous days, these unarmed transport planes flew over the corridors controlled by the Japanese planes, transporting much-needed cargo eastward every hour of day and night.
The danger came not only from Japanese warplanes, but also from bad weather. The Hump route has bad weather almost all year round. Around May to October is the monsoon season, which is cloudy and rainy, accompanied by severe thunderstorms, with turbulence strong enough to destroy the aircraft. The flight weather is better in late autumn and winter, with many days reaching VFR (Visual Flight Rules) levels. However, in the early winter, there is heavy fog with zero visibility on the ground almost every night, and severe thunderstorms can still be encountered on the route from time to time. Extreme winter winds at high altitudes can usually exceed a hundred miles per hour.
Can you imagine the torrential rains from the monsoon over the Himalayas in a heavily loaded, unpressurized twin-propeller plane? "It was like you flew over a bucket of water," recalled Lieutenant Jay Vinyard, one of the pilots of the Burmese-Indian Hump C-46 in World War II.
Lacking any ground or horizon references, most night flights had to take off with cockpit instrumentation until they flew into western China.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" > unbalanced distribution</h1>
The China-Burma-India Theater of Operations (CBI) was established on June 22, 1942, and is often referred to as the forgotten theater of World War II. At the height of World War II mobilization, only about 250,000 (2 percent) of U.S. armed personnel were assigned to the theater. Thousands of them— mostly boys— were assigned to the CBI Theater and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAF). The Air Transport Command transported supplies from India over the hump to China. The 341st Bomber Group was responsible for destroying Japanese installations and supply lines in the area, and the Flying Tigers fought the Japanese over China and Burma. Also supporting the effort are Merrill's Marauders and Mars Task Force — the only dedicated U.S. ground combat force in the theater — who are fighting in the jungles of Burma. Army engineers built the Burma-Ledo Highway, an overland supply line.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > air porter facing the harshest environments</h1>
Initially, the Hump route was covered with modified Douglas DC-3s, C-39s, C-53s and military Douglas C-47s. Traffic on the Hump route grew slowly until the reinforced C-87 (converted from the B-24 bomber) in December 1942 and curtis's C-46 in April 1943. The C-46 is a large, supercharged twin-engined transport aircraft that is faster, taller, and more powerful than the C-47. The C-87 and its modified C-109 oil carrier were equipped with four supercharged engines, which were able to fly higher and faster than the C-46, but with a smaller payload.
In December 1943, after the use of these aircraft, the volume of transport on the Hump route increased to 12,594 tons. Douglas's C-5 joined the Hump route in February 1944. It was a military version of the dc-4, the first large four-engine airliner in the United States, and its freight volume was equivalent to that of a railroad carport. The C-54 can carry 10 tons of supplies — five times as many as the C-47 and twice as many as the C-46.
The living conditions in the Assam Valley of India, where the Hump Route base is located, are primitive. Many people live in tents or bamboo huts. Only a few people live in bungalows or outbuildings in tea gardens. As soon as you get here during the monsoon season, it becomes muddy. People must keep the foundations of sidewalks and tents above the standing water. And the monsoon season is very hot and the humidity is very high. Within a few days the clothes and shoes were moldy. Food is a type C ration issued by the government and is really difficult to swallow. However, for hygiene reasons, base personnel are not allowed to eat outside. Malaria and dysentery are epidemics here. Only iodine-purified water can be used.
Initially, hump pilots flew 650 hours before they were allowed to return home for recuperation. In good weather, a typical mission takes about three hours. When japanese aircraft interception was most rampant, they pushed the route far north, making it impossible for japanese planes to easily intercept, but adding up to two hours of flight time one way.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > huge achievements and high costs</h1>
The hump route transports supplies that are very complex, mainly gasoline, packed in 55-gallon barrels. Others include small arms and ammunition such as rifles, small vehicles such as jeeps, heavy equipment such as excavators, truck and aircraft engines, bombs and aircraft machine gun ammunition, mortar shells, hospital equipment, personnel, steel pipes and other types of cargo.
By the end of the war, the number of aircraft on the Hump route had increased from 369 to 722 and from 26,000 to more than 84,000, including 4,400 pilots. At the beginning of 1945, the monthly shipment of goods to China reached 44,000 tons, until it reached a peak of 71,000 tons in July. From August 1944 to October 1945, the Allies shipped nearly 500,000 tons of supplies from India to China via the Hump Route. In the final offensive against the Japanese, a transport plane took off every three minutes!
But the loss of aircraft and crew on the Hump route was also enormous. Damage was estimated to be between 468 and more than 600 aircraft, and 1,314 crew members were killed. About 1,171 crew members survived rescue after the crash, but 345 more were declared missing.
After three and a half years of operation, on November 15, 1945, the Hump Route was officially closed. To this day, the valleys through which the Hump route passes are littered with various aircraft wreckage, telling people how that extraordinary time should not be forgotten.