The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-12-12
nrRMA TAILS


 BURMA TAILS
 Toe rccnisy into Burma vas the most aabitsous campaign yei paged on the end of an alrbornc supply line. Prom the first advance hy the Chincse into the Huksxng Valley in October until after the sail os MyitlCyina town the nex; August there Wcre af al times between 2s.0o0 and 100000 troops involved in fighting and depenceni largely or entsely on food. equip ment and ammunition that could be air-suppl.eo. either by para chute, free drop. or air landed.
 The air supply was maintained by troop carrie. sQuadrons, British and American. commanded by Brig. Gen. William D. Old. under tlle direction of General Strate- meyers Eastern Air Command Night and day troop carrier c-45's and s7's sliu;tied from numerous bases and air strips in the Brah- maputra Valley to points Of ren- dczvous with the Allied ground columns in the Burma jungles Each trip had to be flown over one or more Of the steep spines which the HimalayaS shove southward along the India-Burma frontier 10 establish one of the most formida- be barriers to military operations in the world. The troop carrier squadrons at the height of the campaign averaged 230 hours of flying time for each servicable plane a month for three months. The normal average monthly fly ing time is l2o hours.
 At two critical stages of the campaign the troop carrier squad rons assisted by Air Transport Command planes made major troop movements in a matter of hours and days that would have required weeks and months by surface transport.
 The first was the movement of British and Indian troops to meet the threat of the Bengal-Assam Railroad at Dimapur. The second was the movement of two Chinese divisions, the 14th and 50th, from Yunnan, China, across the Hump to the troop carrier base at Sook- erating, in Assam, India. This operation was accomplished in just eight days. The Chinese troops were picked up by Air Transport Command planes in China and landed at the troop carrier field where they were entirely refitted, armed, and flown to a staging area in the Hukawng from where they entered the battle for Myitkyina.
 Only by air supply was the Burma campaign at all possible The jungle covered ridges between India and Burma have effectively resisted the advance of civiliza- tions. They are inhabited by mountain tribes of Kachins, Chins, and the headhunting Nagas. Be- fore United States Engineers &C., complished the Herculean job of driving the Ledo Road, now known as the Stilwell Road, across the mountains and through the jtlngles, road from the Brahama- putra to the Irrawaddy Valley was COIlSlQtreu an lnpOSSlplllCy.
 Stilwelps Job One of Wars
 Hardest
 The mission that the joint Chiefs of Staff had given General Stilwell in Asia was one of the most difficult of the war. He was out at the end of the th.nnest sup ply line of all; the demands of the war in Europe and the Pacific campaign, which were clearly the most vital to final victory, exceed ed our resources in many items of materiel and equipment and all but absorbed everything else we had. General Stilwell could have only what was left and that was extremely thin. He had a most difficult physical problem of great distances, almost impossible ter- rain, widespread disease and un- favorable climate; he faced an ex- tremely difficult political problem and his purely military problem of opposing large numbers of enemy with few resources was un- matched in any theater.
 Nevertheless General Stilwell sought with amazing vigor to carry out his mission exactly as 1t