Flying the Hump: Memories of an Air War (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)
When the occupying Japanese cut off China from outside contact during WW II, the Americans quickly established "the Hump," an airlift of troops and supplies over the Himalayas designed to keep Chiang Kai-shek's army in the fight. Spencer, journalism professor emeritus at East Texas State University, who flew the Hump, reveals that enemy aircraft destroyed fewer planes than did such natural hazards as storms and violent winds. He chronicles the successful efforts of Air Force General William H. Tunner to reduce losses by standardizing maintenance inspections and imposing strict regulations about the use of oxygen masks. (Oxygen deprivation was the "silent killer" of many pilots, who considered it a sign of weakness to wear masks below a certain altitude.) Spencer's comprehensive history, a terrific collection of flying stories, profiles pilots, navigators, maintenance men and weather forecasters against the background of Allied strategy in the China-Burma-India theater.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.