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-   -   Supplying China from India (http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=49746)

cpaige5@hotmail.com 16th November 2017 17:55

Supplying China from India
 
I just spent an afternoon this weekend in Edmonton Canada at the local aviation museum. They had a taped interview with a local Chinese Canadian pilot (deceased now). He and his brother flew supplies over the Himalayas to China during and after the war. Over 300 flights. He mentions it was very hazardous and there were many crashes with other planes, describing it as bad as the 8th airforce losses. His most terrifying experience was over the mountains and they lost an engine and they had to throw out all the cargo, including US Cash. My questions is How bad was it with lost planes/crashes? I have read nothing about losses there so I'm curious. I did read once that a pilot took two months to walk out of the mountains. Are there any ideas on reading any more info about this subject!

kaki3152 16th November 2017 21:07

Re: Supplying China from India
 
Try to get a copy of The Aluminum Trail by Quinn

RSwank 17th November 2017 13:50

Re: Supplying China from India
 
There is a lot of info here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hump

While "wiki" sometimes has a bad reputation, it gives you some background and a place to start. Some of the links it gives can be found on the internet archives if they are no-longer active directly.
Some other links:

http://www.historynet.com/salvation-hump-wwii.htm

http://www.macon.com/news/local/comm...e40493031.html

Buckeye30 17th November 2017 14:07

Re: Supplying China from India
 
Also the USAAF Statistical Digest WW2 here......
http://media.defense.gov/2011/Mar/31...110331-045.pdf

especially p.259 ( total losses by type).
p.300 ( ATC a/c assigned and lost).
p.307 ( ATC losses over Hump + operational).
Nick

Mikkel Plannthin 18th November 2017 15:30

Re: Supplying China from India
 
I would recommend.
  • Koenig, W. J. (1972). Over the hump: airlift to China. New York: Ballantine Books.
  • Spencer, O. C. (1994). Flying the Hump : memories of an air war. College Station: Texas AM University Press.
  • Thorne, B. K. (1965). The Hump; the great military airlift of World War II. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

I have been researching a Danish pre-war navy pilot who volunteered for the RCAF in 1940. He was employed by the partly Pan-Am owned China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), who had been flying commercially in China since the 1920. CNAC pioneered the Hump route. You do not mention if your Chinese brothers were USAAF, but they could have been CNAC as well.

If it's CNAC there are a couple of books on this company as well, e.g.
  • Leary, W. M. (1976). The dragon’s wings : the China National Aviation Corporation and the development of commercial aviation in China. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
  • Willett, R. L. (2008). An airline at war : the story of Pan Am’s China National Aviation Corporation and its men. [Charleston, SC]: BookSurge.

According to the Danish pilot, who died in a crash in Hong Kong in 1948 still working for CNAC, the main enemy flying the Hump was not the Japanese, but the weather (and the mountains).

Mikkel Plannthin

cpaige5@hotmail.com 20th November 2017 21:53

Re: Supplying China from India
 
Thanks for the information. I shall get some of those books to read through the inter library loans.
You are correct to say that Chinese could not join the RCAF. They joined the USAF. They flew late 44, 1945 and after the war. Their names were Mah, can't remember the first names as I'm back home on the wet coast.

Matt Poole 1st December 2017 22:13

Re: Supplying China from India
 
Clayton Kuhles in Prescott, Arizona, USA has discovered over 20 crashed aircraft sites in the Himalaya area, all American, I believe. He combined his mountaineering love of physical challenges with his intrigue about missing aircraft and succeeded many times in reaching Hump crashsites never before visited by Westerners. Often the local people, who knew the land, asked him, "Why didn't anyone ask before?" before leading him to remote sites they had known about for decades.

Although the US government visited maybe two of the sites and collected some remains, by and large they stay away from collecting remains from obvious, positively identified wrecks, likely for political reasons. India and China dispute a large area of Arunishal Pradesh, and that seems to be at the heart of the issue.

Take a look at Clayton's website, where you can view photos from his numerous wreck visits. Warning: there are human bones in some photos.

http://miarecoveries.org/


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