1 in 5 pilots called the flight route “The Hump” a reference to the treacherous heights of the Eastern Himalayas. — Photo: Getty Images via BBC Pilots called the flight path “The Hump” a reference to the treacherous heights of the eastern Himalayas. — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
A newly opened museum in India houses the wreckage of American planes that crashed in the Himalayas during World War II.
BBC India correspondent Soutik Biswas reports on a bold and risky air operation that took place as the conflict reached India.
Since 2009, Indian and American teams have been searching the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India, looking for wreckage and remains of crews from hundreds of planes that crashed in the region more than 80 years ago.
It is estimated that about 600 American transport planes crashed in the remote region, killing at least 1,500 airmen and passengers during a remarkable and often forgotten World War II military operation in India that lasted 42 months.
Among the victims were American and Chinese pilots, radio operators and soldiers.
The operation opened a key air transport route from the Indian states of Assam and Bengal to support Chinese forces in Kunming and Chungking (now Chongqing).
The war between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, USA, Soviet Union, China) reached the Britishcontrolled part of India.
The air corridor became a lifeline after the Japanese advanced on India's borders, effectively closing the land route to China through northern Myanmar (then known as Burma).
The U.S. military operation, which began in April 1942, successfully transported 650,000 tons of war supplies through the route a feat that significantly strengthened the Allies' position.
2 out of 5 The deployment enabled India's vital air transport route to support Chinese forces in Kunming and Chunking. Photo: Getty Images via BBC The deployment enabled India's vital air transport route to support Chinese forces in Kunming and Chunking. — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
Pilots nicknamed the dangerous flight route “The Hump,” which means something like “The Hump” in Portuguese, a reference to the treacherous heights of the eastern Himalayas, mostly in what is now Arunachal Pradesh.
For the past 14 years, IndianAmerican teams of mountaineers, students, doctors, forensic archaeologists and rescue specialists have explored dense tropical jungles and scaled heights of up to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) in this Indian state on the border with Myanmar and China.
The US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which is responsible for missing soldiers, is also involved in the searches.
With the help of local tribes, expeditions reached the crash sites and located at least 20 aircraft and the remains of several airmen missing in action.
This is demanding work for example, a sixday walk followed by a twoday bus ride resulted in the discovery of just one accident site.
Another mission was stuck in the mountains for three weeks after being hit by a terrible snowstorm.
“From the floodplains to the mountains, it is challenging terrain. Weather can be a problem and we usually only have late fall and early winter to work with,” says William Belcher, a forensic anthropologist involved in the expeditions.
3 out of 5 Machine gun, debris and camera: some of the artifacts recovered from the recently opened museum. — Photo: Hump Museum via BBC Machine gun, debris and camera: some of the artefacts recovered from the recently opened museum. — Photo: Hump Museum via BBC
Several items were found during the searches: oxygen tanks, machine guns, fuselage parts.
Skulls, bones, shoes and watches were found in the rubble and DNA samples were taken to identify the dead.
A villager found a bracelet with the inscription “Missing Airman,” a poignant relic, in the rubble.
Some of the places where the accidents occurred have been ransacked by local residents over the years and the aluminum parts have been sold as scrap.
These and other artifacts are now on display at the recently opened The Hump Museum in Pasighat, a picturesque town in Arunachal Pradesh at the foothills of the Himalayas.
US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti inaugurated the collection on November 29 and said, “This is not just a gift to Arunachal Pradesh or the affected families, but a gift to India and the world.”
Oken Tayeng, director of the museum, added: “This is also a recognition of all the people of Arunachal Pradesh who have been and are an integral part of this mission to respect the memory of others.”
The museum makes it clear how dangerous the path crossed by the soldiers was.
In his vivid memories of the operation, Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner, a U.S. Air Force pilot, recalls flying his C46 cargo plane over steep mountain villages, wide valleys, deep canyons, streams and straits, and dark rivers.
4 out of 5 wreckages of many aircraft have been found in the mountains in recent years. — Photo: William Belcher via BBC In recent years, debris from many aircraft has been found in the mountains. — Photo: William Belcher via BBC
The flights, often flown by young, newly trained pilots, were turbulent. The weather in “The Hump” changed, according to Tunner, “from minute to minute, from mile to mile”: one end of the route was in the low, damp jungles of India; the other on the milehigh plateau in western China.
Heavily loaded transport aircraft, if caught in a downdraft, could quickly descend 5,000 feet and then quickly rise again at a similar speed.
Tunner wrote in his reports of an aircraft that turned inverted after encountering a downdraft at 25,000 feet.
Spring storms with howling winds, rain and hail posed the greatest challenge in controlling aircraft with rudimentary navigation instruments.
Theodore White, a Life magazine journalist who has flown the route five times for a story, wrote that once the pilot of a plane carrying Chinese soldiers without a parachute decided to make an emergency landing after his plane froze.
The copilot and radio operator managed to eject and land in a “large tropical tree and wandered for 15 days before friendly natives found them.”
Local communities in remote villages often rescued and cared for injured survivors of accidents.
Not surprisingly, local radio stations broadcast numerous distress calls. Some planes went so far off course that they crashed into mountains that the pilots didn't even know were within 50 miles of their route, Tunner recalled.
A single storm downed nine aircraft, killing 27 crew and passengers. “In these clouds, turbulence along the entire route would increase more than I have seen anywhere else in the world before or since,” he wrote.
The parents of the missing airmen hoped that their children were still alive.
“Where is my son? I would love for the world to know. Has his mission been accomplished and has he left the earth beneath him? Is he up there in this beautiful land drinking from the springs, or is he still a wanderer in the jungles of India? and mountains?” asked Pearl Dunaway, mother of missing aviator Joseph Dunaway, in a 1945 poem.
Five of five US transport planes bound for China took off from air bases in Assam, India. — Photo: Getty Images via BBC US transport planes bound for China took off from air bases in Assam, India. — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
The missing airmen have become legends.
“These men fought the Japanese, the jungle, the mountains and the monsoon all day and all night, every day and every night, all year round. The only world they knew was airplanes. They never stopped listening to them, flying them and mending them.” “They stood up and cursed them. Yet they never tired of watching the planes leave for China,” White said.
The operation was a daring feat of air logistics after the global war arrived at India's doorstep.
“The hills and people of Arunachal Pradesh were drawn into the drama, heroism and tragedies of the Second World War through Operation Hump,” Tayeng said.
It's a story that few people know.