Old Week
Abstract: In the recent tomb robbery drama "Yunnan Bug Valley", male No. 1 Hu Bayi found the Thomson submachine gun and revolver from the wreckage of a crashed World War II transport aircraft.
In the recent tomb robbery drama "Yunnan Bug Valley", male No. 1 Hu Bayi found a Thomson submachine gun and a revolver from the wreckage of a crashed World War II transport aircraft.
Located in the mountains in the hinterland of Yunnan, the wreckage of the World War II transport aircraft was found, apparently a US military transport aircraft on the Hump route. In February 1942, the Japanese army occupied Burma, and all sea and land communications between China and overseas were cut off. Since entering the war in December 1941, the United States has considered opening air transport lines with China, and now it is stepping up its implementation, officially opening an air route from The Dingjiang River in Assam, India, to Kunming, Yunnan Province, in May 1942, transporting weapons and equipment and materials shipped by the United States to India and then airlifting them to China, and transporting soldiers to India to receive American equipment and training on the return journey to form a military stationed in India. Because the transport aircraft used at that time were mainly C-47, C-46 and other models, the maximum ceiling was about 8000 meters, coupled with the limitations of aviation technology in that year, the aircraft were not fully enclosed cockpits, could not last for a long time to fly at an altitude of more than 6000 meters, and the engine and pilot could not stand it. And this route must fly over the Himalayas, many peaks are above 6000 meters, so you can only fly more than 6000 meters when flying over these peaks, fly over the peaks immediately after the height is lowered, the flight height of the entire route is like a hump, hence the name Hump route.
Don't take it for granted that this is just an air transport line, nothing dangerous, in fact this route is quite dangerous. On the one hand, the natural environment is harsh, the meteorological conditions are harsh, and there is always a continuous light rain on the flight altitude during the rainy season, and the whole process must be instrumented; in the dry season, there is often a strong air flow, and the aircraft will lose control if it is not careful. The terrain is also very complicated, mostly lofty mountains, and there is no need to find a flat diversion site in the event of an accident. On the other hand, there were attacks by Japanese aircraft, before the Allied capture of Myitkyina in August 1944, Japanese aircraft often attacked American transport aircraft on the Hump route, while Allied fighters could not escort the transport aircraft due to insufficient range, and unarmed transport aircraft without fighters were like lambs to be slaughtered. For example, on November 25, 1944, the Japanese air raided, and the navigation stations on the Hump route had to be completely shut down, resulting in the loss of all 13 transport aircraft in the air at that time because they could not receive navigation signals!
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Because of this, in the three years and five months of Hump airlift, the US military lost a total of 468 transport aircraft, accounting for more than half of the transport aircraft involved in Hump airlift. In the later stages, on a clear day, there was no need to navigate at all, and as long as it flew all the way to Kunming along the glittering wreckage of the transport plane in the valley. The U.S. military considered the Hump route to be no less dangerous than the strategic bombing of Nazi Germany.
Therefore, it is entirely possible that Hu Bayi found the wreckage of the transport plane in the lofty mountains and mountains of the hinterland of Yunnan in "Yunnan Worm Valley".
So, will there be a Thomson submachine gun on the transport aircraft?
It is really unlikely, because after the opening of the Hump route, the initial traffic volume was not large, and by the end of 1942, the monthly traffic volume was only 1,000 tons, and by the end of 943, the monthly traffic volume increased to 10,000 tons. Moreover, the materials transported on the Hump route are first of all the fuel, parts and components needed to ensure the B-29 bombers that took off from Chengdu to bomb Japan, as well as fuel, communication equipment, medicines and other materials that are far more important than firearms. At first, the weapons aided by the United States were only equipped with troops stationed in Ramga, India, and were mainly transported to China by road after the Indian Army and the Expeditionary Force in the Western Yunnan Campaign were tested at the Mangyouhui in January 1945 and the Sino-Indian Highway was opened. Taking a step back, even in the later period, after the hump route traffic rose sharply, the number of weapons and equipment that began to be airlifted for assistance was not much, because the largest number of weapons aided by the US military was the M1903 Springfield rifle (also translated as the Springfield rifle) and the M1917 Browning heavy machine gun, and the number of Thomson submachine guns was very small. During the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the United States aided China with only 26,000 Thomson submachine guns, most of which were given to the Indian army, and even fewer were shipped to China.
The Thompson submachinegun is also translated as the Thompson or Thomson submachine gun. Because the sound of gunshots when shooting is very similar to a typewriter, and the early Chicago underworld liked to use it, it had the nickname "Chicago Typewriter". Shirley Young mentioned this in the play.
The Thomson submachine gun was born as early as 1919, and the production version began to appear in 1921. The performance is indeed quite good, but the structure is complex, so the cost is expensive, the initial unit price is as high as 200 US dollars, you know that at that time, a Ford car was only 400 US dollars, and later although it dropped to 120 US dollars, it was also a sky-high price. In contrast, the U.S. military's M3 submachine gun during World War II cost only $22 per unit, and the American Stern submachine gun only cost $10. So the U.S. military was only small in the 1930s. Only after the outbreak of World War II was 319,000 units urgently ordered. By the time of production in 1945, the total production of Thomson submachine guns of all models was only 1.4 million, which was significantly lower than that of other submachine guns during World War II.
However, the Thomson submachine gun entered China very early, Sun Yat-sen's guard was equipped with 18, in the historical photos of the Kuomintang in 1924, you can see that the guards around Sun Yat-sen are carrying Thomson submachine guns on their shoulders. The Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan was also very interested in the Thomson submachine gun, so the Taiyuan Arsenal also copied a batch of imitations.
In the wreckage of the transport plane in "Yunnan Bug Valley", in addition to Hu Bayi finding the Thomson submachine gun, Shirley Yang found two Colt revolvers. Although it is also an American gun, and the Colt revolver is also very famous, the standard pistol of the US army during World War II is the M1911 Browning semi-automatic pistol. Although americans like revolvers, especially in the development of the West, the standard configuration of cowboys is a large-caliber revolver, but on the battlefield, revolvers are not as good as the ammunition capacity, rate of fire, power and other aspects, m1911 semi-automatic pistols. In the Pacific Theater, the Japanese bayonet charge, it is difficult to rush through the American mortar, machine gun, semi-automatic rifle composed of fire network, to close range, the U.S. army is relying on the m1911 pistol to crush the Japanese charge, because the bayonet is not as fast as the bullet.
Therefore, although the Thomson submachine gun and the Colt revolver appeared in the wreckage of the World War II transport aircraft, there was no problem in terms of the timing of the weaponry. However, in reality, the possibility of airlifting Thomson submachine guns and Colt revolvers on the HUMP route of the US army is minimal.
(The picture of this article is from the network)