Lardas, Mark/Turner, Graham (Illustr.) The Hump 1942–45. America's first massive military airlift

During World War II, the war in China tied up a large part of the Japanese army, and it was crucial to keep China fighting and supplied. But when the Burma Road fell, the only route left was by piston-engined transport planes over the Himalayas from India. As Japan captured new bases and deployed fighter planes to intercept them, the possible routes over the Hump became increasingly treacherous. In this book, aviation historian Mark Lardas explains how the campaign was conducted. While the effort began with only 25 transports and the initial organisation was ad hoc, by July 1945 it had grown into a vast and organised airlift, with new airfields, special navigation aids and a fleet of 640 aircraft. The cost was high, with 594 aircraft lost and over 1,300 people killed. Yet nearly 700,000 tons of supplies were transported during the war, keeping China in the war. The India-China Wing of the Air Traffic Command received a Presidential Unit Citation for its efforts, the first ever awarded to a non-combat unit. This story, replete with numerous illustrations and maps, is about the first successful strategic airlift in history. The lessons learned from the Hump project were incorporated into the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 and were a major precursor to the United States' ability to exert power in the Cold War.