The Hump

[RogerJNeilson]

Interesting article about flying the Hump:

http://www.chinaww2.com/2016/04/23/flying-the-hump/

Roger

[Trugrit]

Roger,

Thanks for posting. It is very interesting.
It took a lot of courage to fly that route.

Here are a few more links you might like:
http://www.thethumbprintmag.com/over-th ... ld-war-ii/

This one has audio interviews from some of the vets.
I always like to hear vets talk about the war.
http://loc.gov/vets/stories/cbi-flyingt ... ml#stories

The fireball Express:
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArch ... 9hump.aspx
“The camouflage paint was stripped off the airplanes to give them an extra 5 mph of airspeed”

“The airlift brought about 3,000 mules over the Hump, mostly for the Chinese army. They rode four mules to a transport, with four Chinese “cowboys” keeping them under control. Crew members said it took a day to clear the smell out of the airplanes.”

Recovery of lost airmen:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/24/ru ... irmen.html

The game simplifies and uses Ledo as the hub but there were really five major Assam airfields
The most important was Dinjan. The Allies used rail and river barges to move supplies to the airfields.
The map below shows the barge route.

“Conditions at all of the bases in Assam were primitive. Crews lived in tents and bamboo huts, with pythons and other creatures making frequent visits. Jeeps sped down the runways ahead of airplanes taking off to clear cows and local citizens out of the way. Clothing and shoes mildewed in a few days from the humidity. The heat was oppressive and the rains were heavy. At one point in 1942, the water was nine inches deep on the airstrip at Dinjan.”……….airforcemag.

[LastBreath]

Heroic !

[LoBaron]

Thanks for sharing!

[mikkey]

Interesting, thanks for sharing Roger!

[geofflambert]

"Not only was this an era without GPS and sophisticated navigation systems, but one in which large swaths of the Himalayas were uncharted. Storms, ice, fog and the jet stream — then a little-understood phenomenon — created flight and navigation problems that could quickly turn a routine flight into a terrifying dance with death."

I read somewhere the early 747's had a window on top above and behind the cockpit and the crew was supposed to go up there and know how to use a sextant. [X(]

[crsutton]

Interesting thing is the virtually all supplies flown over the hump went to support Chennault's air force. Very little actually went to the Chinese.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Interesting thing is the virtually all supplies flown over the hump went to support Chennault's air force. Very little actually went to the Chinese.

I imagine it substantially improved communications between India and Chun King and thus Washington and Chiang and Stilwell.

[Yaab]

I guess it is better to think of this supply effort in terms of Ledo-Chungking airflift instead of Ledo-China. The amount delivered could have probably prop up a big city and some units instead of the whole army , just like the Allied airlift to Berlin did later on.