"BURMA ROAD OF THE AIR"

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24832, 2 March 1944, Page 3

"BURMA ROAD OF THE AIR"

GETTING WAR SUPPLIES TO CHINA

AMERICA'S FERRY By MART; London Dally Telegraph Correspondent i At last the story can be told of the great air line which is carrying war supplies into China. Over the spurs of the Himalayas, the worst flying route in the world, American transports are each month ferrying thousands of tons of material. By this Burma Road of the Air China is getting more military supplies than the other Burma Road, now blocked by the enemy, ever carried at the peak of its traffic. In planes, cargo and personnel this is the biggest airline operation in the history of flying. Its traffic is greater than that of America's three leading I airlines combined. It has many more 'pilots than the entire United States I air transport system employed in j peace-time, probably more than were flying on all the air routes of the world. Over the Himalayan "hump," with its 17,000 ft. peaks, its frequent clouds and high winds, goes everything that China gets from America and everything that the American Air Force J there needs for its own operations. Artillery, ammunition, bombs, medicines, army clothing, food and comforts for the American personnel, and, above all, hundreds of thousands of gallons of aviation petrol, are carried over this perilous route. Jeep Part of Cargo ".[ crossed the Hump in a jeep," an officer remarked to me the other day. ! Then he explained that the jeep he sat [ in was part of the cargo of a Douglas eransport. Vehicles larger than jeeps fly the Hump; even two and a half-ton trucks, dismantled for the journey, ar® now going into China. More tliaji a year ago, when the organisation was still in the early stages, I three times flew this route with American pilots. Then I could only hint at what was being done, difficulties which were being fought against, developments which were being pushed ahead. Now that the service is established 011 such a great scale and many scores of aircraft are plying day and night, now that fighter squadrons 011 both sides of the Himalayas are providing protection against enemy attacks, the full story inay be safely told. It is one of the finest records of human effort and triumph.

OVER HIMALAYAS N MOORE »t the United States Air Base In A«»nm. several times a week. Always, in spite of fighter protection, there is the peril of Japanese attack. A heavily-laden transport is no match for a Zero. To be shot down or forced down in the mountains means possible death from exposure even if the crew are not killed. There have been miraculous escapes.. One man got back after walking 48 days over snow-covered mountains and through dense footlull jungles. These risks have been greatly lessened by the recently established rescue service, which has already saved many lives. Whenever a transport is reported missing a rescue plane, with a doctor parachutist aboard, takes off to search for the crew, ready to drop medical supplies, food, maps and money with which to buy the goodwill of tlie hillmen. Elite of the Corps Rescue planes circle over stranded men, guiding them back toward base. Young men face these daily hazards with superb spirit. They are the elite of the air corps and they know it. Jhe prestige of having flown the Hump is honoured wherever airmen meet. It is the highest test, not onlv of skill, but of sustained courage. Many seek transfers from easier duties to take part in it. Experience has not conquered the perils of the Hump. They never will be conquered. They must be faced until the land route is reopened. They are a part of the .sacrifice America is making to help China and to build up beyond these mountains an Air Forco which is already striking the enemy in Hongkong, Indo-Cliina and Siam.

The ferry service started in March, 1942, with a handful of Douglas DCS transports. Operating from a poor airfield, with no maintenance facilities, little staff and inadequate ground crews, these planes began to implement Mr. Roosevelt's pledge that aid be sent to China by air. They were flying an almost uncharted route, with no weather reporting and no fighter protection. Officers and men lived together in one bungalow 14 miles from the airfield. Colonel W. D. Old, first commanding officer of that little group, used to set his alarm clock for 3 a.m. From then on everybody worked until nightfall. Flying by " Contact "

Ad first Colonel Old's headquarters possessed 110 radio set. Even when a wrecked one was obtained and repaired the plane-to-ground communications were cut off over the mountains.

Pilots had to fly by "contact," coming down through the clouds until they could see the mountains—or liifc one of them. Among the first cargoes they carried was petrol earmarked for refuelling General Doolittle's bombers when they landed in China after the Tokyo raid. After a few weeks the little fleet began to expand. Pan-American Airways sent stripped passenger aircraft, and some of the airline crews who flew them here carried on and became ferry crews over the Hump. The;e were the days when Burma was falling. China transports, after discharging their cargoes on the other side, used to fly back via Myitkvina (terminus of railway about '25 miles north of .Aloud a lay), then still in outhands, and pick up refugees. One took 75 people and set them down safely in Assam—an incredible load for an aircraft. which in normal operation carries 20 passengers.

Difficulties increased. The Japanese captured Alyitkyina, forcing the ferry pilots to take a more northerly route over the higher mountains. Then, later on, came the American landings in North Africa, and many of the aircraft actually on the way to join the IndiaChina service were seized and "borrowed" bv General Eisenhower. Shortage of Spare Parts

I Assam is at the end of a 17.000-mile | supply route from the United States, < and practically no spares were obtainable. Colonel Old "cannibalised" 'planes, using parts o; damaged ones to Iteep the others flying, j Ihe shortage of planes and spares | was succeeded by a shortage of pilots. When General Eisenhower released his borrowed planes the China ferry command had not enough men to flv them. Any American pilot who came to Eastern India, no matter what his designated duty, was shanghaied for the terry. When he asked for details of the route his new commanding officer would point to the mountains" and say. you take off and flv tnat way Jhe operations tower was a tall tree near the runway. ihe biggest single development in the service was the advent of the giant Curtis Commando transport, powered by two 2000 h.p. engines and able to carry twice the load of the

Ihe need was so urgent that the makers put the Commandos straight into mass production and sent them out to India with all those minor faults which take months of testing to eliminate from a new type. It was over the Hiirialavan peaks that the bugs" were gradually ironed " (,t "; i „ illo,, t crashes an.'l losses. Uf >)7 modifications now embodied in factory production more than 90 were first made by mechanics on the rainswept Assam airfields, paddling in deep rnua and standing on oil drums to do their job. t All-Weather Airfields

The Commando has proved an ideal aircraft for this route, because it is capable of carrying a. heavy load at high altitude with relatively low fuel consumption.

Ground organisation has expanded beyond recognition. Instead of a single landing strip surrounded by water and mud in the monsoon there arc now several all-weather airfields.

From the little bungalow where the colonel's alarm clock used to wake the entire personnel, flu.' establishment has spread to a series of new townships, with administrative .buildings, repair shops and comfortable quarters for thousands of officers and men.

In May, 1912, the men in the bungalow flew 85 tons of Avar supplies to China. For February, 1943, the figure was 2600 tons. I wish I could divulge exactly what the tonnage is to-day; it ha.s multiplied several times in the past ]() months. The service is still rapidly growing. The seasoned airline pilots who started it have now mostly given place to youngsters just out of the flying school. The round trip to China and back is 1100 miles, and the men often fly it