The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and the units of the United States Army Air Forces based in China. Creating an airlift presented the USAAF a considerable challenge in 1942: it had no units trained or equipped for moving cargo, and no airfields existed in India for basing the large number of transports that would be required. Flying over the Himalayas was extremely dangerous and made more difficult by a lack of reliable charts, an absence of radio navigation aids, and a dearth of information about the weather. The task was initially given to the U.S. Tenth Air Force, and then to the USAAF's Air Transport Command. Because the USAAF had no previous airlift experience upon which to base planning, it assigned commanders to build and direct the operation who had been key figures in the founding of the ATC. In addition, another commander had extensive executive experience with civilian air carriers. The successive organizations responsible for carrying out the mission were: the Assam-Burma-China Command and the India-China Ferry Command of the Tenth Air Force; and the Air Transport Command's India-China Wing, and India-China Division. Wikipedia [ - ]

The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the... [ + ]