Indian Army Discovers Wreckage of Another WW II Aircraft
The route used for airlift operation by US allies to supply Chinese troops was extremely dangerous and hostile and had downed a lot of aircraft
A 12-member Indian Army patrol along with a police representative recovered wreckage of a World War II vintage US Air Force aircraft in Roing district of Arunachal Pradesh on 30 March 2019. The patrol located the aircraft debris covered by thick undergrowth and buried under five feet of snow.
Based on the information received from local trekkers of Lower Dibang district through the police, a special patrol of Army was sent to locate the wreckage in a remote location, 30 kms from Roing. The patrol moved cross country for 30 kilometers in thick jungles and snow covered areas for eight days to trace out the wreckage. The region had seldom been ventured by anyone in the past and is even obscured from air due to thick foliage. The discovery of the vintage aircraft and other warlike stores will definitely lead to revelation of some historical inputs.
The airlift operation that crossed the Himalayan foothills into China was called ‘The Hump’, a nickname given to it by allied pilots. It was the most dangerous airlift route and the only one at the time for the US allies to supply the Chinese who were fighting Japan. This route was so dangerous that more than 1,000 men and 600 planes had been lost over the 530-mile stretch of rugged terrain. The route was, therefore, named the ‘Skyway to Hell’ and sometimes the ‘Aluminum Trail’, as a number of planes didn’t make it to the other side. The mighty himalayan mountain ranges caused jet stream-strength winds and a perilous weather at higher altitudes.