INDIA
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
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. (click image to enlarge)
CHINA
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.