China, US transfer remains of US servicemen killed along the Hump route in World War 2

"In SW Chinas Chengdu, the Chinese and US militaries held a ceremony to transfer the remains of American airmen recovered along the Hump Route back to the United States," Mao Ning, Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, posted on X on Tuesday.

"Eighty years after they crossed the Himalayas to aid Chinas resistance against Japanese aggression, these heroes are finally homeward bound a return made possible with Chinas humanitarian assistance," the spokesperson added.

The mission undertaken by US servicemen to fly from British India, over the Eastern Himalayas, and into Southwest China, was one of the most daunting ones ever undertaken during the course of World War II. 'The Hump', as the route came to be called, was so treacherous that some US servicemen called it 'hell in the air', according to US historian and journalist, Theodore H. White.

The 500-to-800-mile air route stretched from Assam in British India to Kunming in China. It was operated by the USAAF Air Transport Command from April 1942 to November 1945 to resupply Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese forces. The mission was undertaken after the Imperial Japanese Army rolled into British Burma in April 1942. They closed down the Burma Road, a 717-mile (1,154 km) highway linking Lashio in British Burma with Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan province.

China during World War II had itself been in a state of intermittent conflict for over 12 years. In 1927, the Communists under Mao Zedong started a brutal Civil War against the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) government in the country. In 1937, Japan invaded China, starting the equally brutal Second Sino-Japanese War.

In December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, China joined the Allied side formally. In 1943, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met US President Franklin Roosevelt and UK PM Winston Churchill at the Cairo Conference, solidifying the country's importance to the Allied side.

Back in 1942, with all its ports blockaded by Japan and its only link to Allied troops cut off by the Japanese, the Allies decided to run sorties from British India's Assam to Southwest China to keep the Chinese from surrendering. If it did surrender, the Japanese would redirect its troops to the Pacific theater or even invade India.

The route was vicious. Planes flew without modern navigation through unpredictable monsoons, 160 km/h winds, and severe icing conditions. They also faced Japanese fighter ambushes based in Burma.

Not surprisingly, aircraft crashed, killing airmen. The resulting wreckage glinted on the mountain slopes, becoming known as the "Aluminium Trail."

Since it was costing both men and material, the Allies fought through Burma to construct a new land route. This new road, known as The Ledo Road, connected India to the Burma Road destroyed by the Japanese.By early 1945, land convoys resumed, and the combined land and air routes successfully delivered the massive influx of supplies needed for China's final counter-offensives.

By 1945, the war itself came to an end. Imperial Japan was finally defeated. But China would not see peace till 1949, when Mao led the Communists to victory and declared the People's Republic of China.

The Hump became a part of history. But in the years since, it has become part of World War II lore, especially the heroism of the airmen. As General Albert Wedemeyer, Commander of American Forces in China, would state: Flying the Hump was the foremost and by far the most dangerous, difficult and historic achievement of the entire war. (ANI)