When airfreight was already vital
With the transport of 30,000 l of aviation fuel from the British base in Dinjan, Assam, to Kunming, “the Hump”, the largest airlift of the Second World War, took off exactly 80 years ago, on 8 April 1942.
The airlift served to supply Chiang Kai-shek’s national Chinese troops and the “Flying Tigers”, an American volunteer group stationed in China. The operation began after the Japanese army had blocked the more than 1,100 km long Burma Road.
Until 1945, a total of around 650,000 t of freight were delivered from India to China on the only 900 km long but very challenging route over almost 5,000 m high mountain ranges (“the Hump”) in turbulent tropical weather and under constant threat from the enemy. 594 aircraft were lost, 1,659 people were killed or reported missing. The survivors were able to contribute their experience to the Berlin airlift of June 1948 to May 1949. (ah)