The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-03-21
Over The Hump
By PETER EDISON

OQ tAe1T urSt leave nOIlle d1leT TWO years O1
war transport flying, four Pan American pilots
who among them have flown across the Hima-
laya mountains 1900 times, have given the best
picture yet of the job that is being done in
maintaining China's aerial life line, over the
hump from Calcutta, India to Running and
Chungking, China.
They are Harold Chinn, 81, of Vancouver,
B. c.; Ray Allen, %, of Briston, Okla;
Julius Petach, 81, of Port Vue, Pa; Peter
Gouterie, 20, of Bangor Me.
This route was pioneered by the Chinese
National Always before the fall of Rangoon,
but today the India China wing of the Armys
Air Transport Command carries 80 per cent
of the load which is now measured in thou
sands of tons, where it used to be measured
in pounds. Today on this Burma road of the
air. one plane is doing the work that used to
be done by 80 trucks, the four veterans re-
port
Where we used to try to hold things to-
gether with six overworked airplanes,' says
Captain Allen. ''the Army now has a fleet
of hundreds OF their big transports flying. Pan
American alone has 100 flight crews on the
China job"
These Pan Americana. N A. c. crews and
planes have two assignments. First is running
the passenger, mail and express route from
Calcutta to Chungking. It has never missed a
day Of flying since the Japs cut the original
Burma road.
Second is operation Of the freight shuttle
service bver the very crest of the Himalayas,
operating the aircraft lease-loaned to China
and carrying lease-lend supplies to the Re-
public. The Army's larger job is in transport
ing military supplies for air and ground forces
in both Burma and China.
But when the going gets tough" interposes
Pilot Petach, Everybody hauls anything"
1T was tough going before the Army moved
in says Gouterie. I'VE were just about out
of bailng wire and chewing gum cement.
Now we get all the spare parts. need, which
used to be hgh-jacked on the way over, and
we pass on to the Army pilots what we have
learned in our two-year battle over the hump.
We now know that route by heart-all the
tricks of the worlds weather and the wiles
Of the Japs in trying to jam our radios, am
bush us. and fool us into landing on their
Fields.
CHM, the American-born Chinese pilot is
veteran of 10 years of flying in the Orient
for c. N. A. C-during seven of which China
has been at war with Japan. He has probably
flown in more bad weather than any man
alive. 1--WE had to do it that way" he says,
if we wanted to keep on flying and living.
We just picked weather too tough for Japs
to handle
Exact number of planes on this run is of
course military secret. but the records
achieved are explained by Chinn in this way:
One DC-3 carrying two and half tons Of
cargo and making one and half round trips,
or three crossings a day, delivers as much
cargo in 30 days as 80 trucks over the Bur-
ma road. Two and half crews are on hand
for every plane. Engines don't get chance
to cool down when crews are changed and
new loads dashed down. Every crew averages
IS round trips. lob hours of flying, every
month.
In the seven years of the war Pan American
has had only five airliners shot down or forced
to land by Jap gunfire First loss on the Burma
route was a plane flown Ky Capt. Marshal
Schroeder of Buffalo, N. Y. He was Just
over the hump when radio warned him that
Jap was on his tail For 10 year-long
minutes he tried every trick he knew to get
away Only once did ground radio reach him.
"Too busy now. Tell you later" Schroeder
answered, then silence. C. N. A. c. pilots
now dip their wings over the last position from
! which he reported.