China-Burma-India[5]
China’s last important supply link with the Allies, the Burma Road, was
closed when the Japanese occupied northern Burma in May 1942. Despite
her isolation, China resisted the Japanese and remained an active ally.
The importance of giving China sufficient support to keep her in the
war led to the Allied plan to re-establish surface communications with
China and to increase supply by air over the Hump.
[5] See Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland, _Stilwell’s Mission to
China_, Washington, D.C., 1953; and Romanus and Sunderland, _Stilwell’s
Command Problems_, Washington, D.C., 1956, in the series _U.S. ARMY IN
WORLD WAR II._
In August 1942 a training center was established at Ramgarh, India, for
training the poorly equipped Chinese troops; concurrently, training
centers were also established in China. In December 1942 the Allies
began the construction of a new road leading from Ledo, India, across
northern Burma to an intersection with the Burma Road near the China
border. Subsequently this was supplemented by a pipeline for aviation
and fuel oil from Calcutta, India, to Kunming, China. Pending the
reopening of ground communications with China, the only route of supply
available was the air transport system over the spur of the Himalayas
from the Assam valley, India, to Kunming, a distance of approximately
500 air miles.
Fighting in Burma was relatively light in 1943; however, Allied
aircraft pounded enemy airfields, communications, and rear
installations. Rangoon, important center of the enemy supply system,
was bombed repeatedly with damaging results.
In China during 1943, air attacks constituted the only offensive
operations by the Allies. U.S. planes carried out attacks against enemy
bases in Burma, Thailand, Indo-China, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Formosa.
Shipping along the China coast was attacked with little loss to the
enemy. In 1944 B-29’s based in China attacked targets in Manchuria, on
Formosa, and in Japan.
During this time the Japanese had increased their China-based air
strength but were deploying their best planes and pilots to meet the
threat in the Southwest Pacific.
The Allied counteroffensive in north Burma, which started early in
1944, continued to the end of the year with great intensity. Landings
in the Philippines and U.S. naval operations in the China Sea
threatened the Japanese supply line to Burma and by the end of January
1945, large groups of enemy forces were retreating from north Burma.
As a result of the Allied advance in Burma in 1944, the entire route
of the new Ledo Road was cleared except for a small stretch near its
junction with the Burma Road. On 4 February the first Allied convoy
traveled over the Ledo Road, which was renamed the Stilwell Highway.
In the latter stages of the Burma Campaign, American troops together
with Chinese troops were flown to China. Serious Japanese offensives in
China during the summer of 1944 and early 1945 were terminated in the
spring of 1945 and the enemy began to withdraw from south and central
China.
CHINA-BURMA-INDIA
[Illustration: CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER]
INDIA
[Illustration: U.S. TROOPS ABOARD A TRANSPORT waiting to go ashore at
a port in India. At the end of 1942 only about 17,000 American troops
were in the China-Burma-India theater, consisting almost entirely of
Air Forces and Services of Supply personnel.]
INDIA
[Illustration: AMERICAN PERSONNEL, just arrived in India, load into
trucks bound for their new station (top); unloading American supplies
(bottom). With the closing of the Burma road, China became isolated
in 1942. The coastline, railroads, and vital areas of China were
controlled by the Japanese and were occasionally harassed by raids of
Chinese guerrilla forces.]
INDIA
[Illustration: CHINESE TROOPS TRAINING AT RAMGARH, INDIA. Chinese
troops learning to handle a .30-caliber M1917A1 Browning machine gun
(top left) and a 75-mm. pack howitzer M1A1 (top right); on a road march
(bottom). From October 1942 to the end of the year some 21,000 Chinese
soldiers were flown to the Ramgarh training center.]
INDIA
[Illustration: TRANSPORTING U.S. SUPPLIES IN INDIA, 1942. An American
air force based in China was dependent upon the Hump air route, which
was at the end of a 10,000-mile line of supply from the United States,
for the much needed gasoline, bombs, and other munitions. In order for
one American bomber in China to execute a mission against the enemy, a
transport plane had to make an average of four separate flights over
the Hump, the most hazardous mountain terrain in the world.]
INDIA
[Illustration: SNOW-CAPPED PEAKS of a spur of the Himalayas between
the Salween and Mekong Rivers. Some of these peaks reach over 20,000
feet high. The air route over the system, called the Hump, was about
500 air miles, from the Assam valley in northeast India over the
Himalayas to Kunming in western China. Cargo transported over the Hump
increased from about 10,000 tons a month during the summer of 1943 to
approximately 46,000 tons a month by January 1945.]
CHINA
[Illustration: KOWLOON DOCKS UNDER AIR ATTACK BY U.S. PLANES, a portion
of Hong Kong in foreground. A Japanese Zero can be seen just to the
left of the smoke from a hit on the Kowloon docks and railroad yards.
In Burma during 1942 most of the action following the Japanese conquest
of the country consisted of limited air attacks and patrol clashes
along the Burma--India border. At the end of 1943 there was no evidence
of a weakened Japanese grip on the railroads, big cities, and ports in
China.]
INDIA
[Illustration: U.S. AIRCRAFT USED IN CHINA DURING 1942-43. North
American Mitchell medium bomber B-25 (top); Curtiss single-seat fighter
P-40 (bottom). In July 1942 U.S. air strength in China consisted of
about 40 aircraft against some 200 enemy planes.]
BURMA
[Illustration: AMERICAN AND CHINESE TROOPS moving forward over
difficult terrain into northern Burma, 1944. Pack animals used in
transporting supplies (top); men stop to make repairs on a bridge
which was damaged by the pack train (bottom). During the early part of
1943, Allied forces in northern Burma conducted experimental offensive
operations to harass and cut enemy lines of communications, and
defensive operations to cover the construction of the Ledo Road. By the
end of 1943, the Japanese had increased their strength in Burma to six
divisions, preparing to resume offensive operations against India.]
INDIA
[Illustration: 40-MM. ANTIAIRCRAFT GUN M1 with its crew in India, April
1944 (top); 81-mm. mortar M1 firing on enemy supply and communications
lines (bottom). In February 1944 the Chinese troops advancing down the
Hukawng Valley were joined by a specially trained American infantry
combat team. In May 1944 the Allied forces had fought their way into
the airfield at Myitkyina, the key to northern Burma.]
BURMA
[Illustration: CHINESE SOLDIER ON GUARD near a bridge over the Salween
River has rigged up a shady spot for himself by tying an umbrella to
his rifle. The Burma Road reaches its lowest point, some 2,000 feet
above sea level, at this bridge site.]
BURMA
[Illustration: CROSSING THE SALWEEN RIVER, July 1944. The temporary
suspension bridge was built to replace the permanent bridge here which
was blown up in 1942 by the Chinese as a defense measure against the
Japanese advance. While Allied forces advanced on Myitkyina, Chinese
troops crossed the Salween River from the east. The two forces met
at Teng-chung in September 1944, establishing the first thin hold in
northern Burma.]
BURMA
[Illustration: SUPPLY DROP IN BURMA, spring of 1944. Men can be seen
waiting to recover supplies dropped by parachute; note small stockpile
in center foreground. From October 1943 to August 1944 food, equipment,
and ammunition was supplied largely or entirely to the some 100,000
troops involved in the fighting by air--either air-landed, or by
parachute or free drop.]
BURMA
[Illustration: DOUGLAS C-47 TRANSPORT taking off in a cloud of dust
from an airstrip near Man Wing, Burma. Air supply operations were
maintained by both British and American troop carrier squadrons,
flying night and day from bases in the Brahmaputra Valley to points
of rendezvous with Allied ground troops in Burma. Air supply made the
Burma campaign possible.]
BURMA
[Illustration: U.S. SERVICES OF SUPPLY TRUCK CONVOY starting across a
temporary ponton bridge just after its completion in 1944. Built across
the treacherous Irrawaddy River, this bridge was approximately 1,200
feet long and served as a link in the Ledo Road for the combat troops
and supply vehicles. When the torrential rains ceased a permanent
structure was built to handle the tremendous loads of the convoys going
to China.]
BURMA
[Illustration: PIPELINES showing the manifold valve installation on the
pipeline near Myitkyina, Burma, September 1944. Engineers were to build
two 4-inch pipelines for motor fuel and aviation gasoline starting in
Assam, paralleling the Ledo Road, and extending through to Kunming,
China. By October 1944 one of the lines reached Myitkyina, a distance
of about 268 miles; 202 miles were completed on the other line by this
date. Another 6-inch pipeline for gasoline was built in India from
Calcutta to Assam.]
BURMA
[Illustration: TANKS driven by American-trained Chinese soldiers making
a sharp horseshoe turn on the road to Bhamo, December 1944. Tank in
foreground is a light tank M3A3; in the background are M4A4 medium
tanks. The Burma--India Campaign continued with intensity during the
monsoon season of 1944. By December the projected route of the supply
road to Bhamo had been cleared.]
BURMA
[Illustration: SURVEYING PARTY planning for a portion of the Ledo Road
across abandoned rice paddies (top); hundreds of Chinese laborers pull
a roller to smooth a runway for an airstrip (bottom). B--29 attacks
on targets in Manchuria, Formosa, and Japan, beginning in 1944,
necessitated the building of several new airfields in China and India.]
BURMA
[Illustration: CASUALTY BEING LOWERED BY ROPES AND PULLEY from a
liaison plane that crashed into a tree in Burma; portion of plane can
be seen in upper left. When it crashed, the plane was being used to
evacuate three casualties from the fighting area.]
BURMA
[Illustration: RECOVERING SUPPLIES dropped by parachute. During 1943
and 1944 the flow of U.S. arms and materiel through Calcutta, India,
and up the valley had become great enough to support the tasks of
building the Ledo Road and of destroying the Japanese forces in its
path and increasing steadily the capacity of the Hump air route.]
INDIA
[Illustration: ASSEMBLY OF FIRST TRUCK CONVOY IN LEDO, Assam, to travel
the Ledo-Burma Road, a route stretching over approximately 1,000 miles
through Myitkyina, Burma, to Kunming, China. Note railroad to left of
the road. The vehicles are loaded with supplies and ammunition; some
are pulling antitank guns and filed artillery pieces.]
BURMA
[Illustration: FIRST CONVOY OVER THE LEDO ROAD, renamed the Stilwell
Highway; cargo truck (top) is a 2½-ton 6x6. In December 1942, engineers
started to construct the Ledo Road starting from Ledo, Assam, across
northern Burma to an intersection with the Burma Road near the China
border. They moved ahead as fast as the combat troops, often working
under enemy fire. On 28 January 1945, the first convoy crossed the
Burma-China frontier.]
CHINA
[Illustration: SECTION OF BURMA ROAD just east of Yun-nan-i, China.
Many hairpin turns were necessary to wind a road around the treacherous
mountain terrain. Note the many terraced rice paddies on the mountain
sides and the distance from the road of the two Chinese villages, left
center. Over most difficult terrain and under intolerable weather
conditions, Allied forces defeated the Japanese in Burma in late spring
of 1945.]
BURMA
[Illustration: JAPANESE WARSHIP UNDER ATTACK by North American medium
bomber B-25 near Amoy, China, 6 April 1945; some enemy survivors can be
seen in the water as others cling to the side of the wreckage (bottom).
In the spring of 1945 the Japanese began to withdraw from south and
central China.]
THE COLLAPSE OF JAPAN AND THE END OF THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC