Hump, the

Hump, the, name given to the air route organized by the India–China Wing of US Air Transport Command which supplied US forces in China and Chiang Kai-shek and his army. In April 1944 it also airlifted 18,000 Chinese troops to India to participate in Stilwell's advance during the Burma campaign.

Once the Chinese coastline had been sealed by the Japanese (seeChina incident), and Burma captured so that the Burma Road could not be used, the only method of supplying the Chinese was to airlift supplies across a series of mountain ridges (Patkai, Kumon, and Santsung), some 4,500 m. (15,000 ft.) high. The route was from Dinjan, and nearby airfields, in India's eastern Assam to Kunming, a distance of about 800 km. (500 mi.). It often involved flying at an aircraft's maximum ceiling, with icing, violent turbulence, and monsoon weather, all of which combined to make it an extremely hazardous task.

The route was inaugurated in July 1942 when 82 tons of supplies were airlifted to China and it first exceeded 1,000 tons a month that December. However, the urgent needs of Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell'sChina–Burma–India theatre for fuel, ammunition, and general supplies, soon led to a rapid expansion. In July 1943, 2,916 tons were flown in; in July 1944, 18,975 tons; and in July 1945, the peak month of the whole operation, 71,042 tons. In total 650,000 tons of supplies—the equivalent of the cargo of 70 Liberty ships—were airlifted to China and at its peak the Wing employed more than 22,000 service personnel, 47,000 civilians, and more than 300 aircraft. Losses in aircraft and crew were heavy. In January 1945, for example, when 44,000 tons of supplies were airlifted, there were 23 major accidents which caused the loss of 36 lives.