China Repatriates Remains of U.S. Airmen Killed in World War II Supply Missions

Breitbart ^ | Nov. 10. 2026 | John Hayward

[chickenlips]

Military officials from China and the United States met at a ceremony in Chengdu, China on Tuesday for the ceremonial return of the remains of American airmen who were killed during Himalayan supply missions in World War II.

The ceremony was the culmination of decades of effort by American and Chinese officials to locate all of the air crews who died while flying “The Hump,” a supply route from India to southwestern China that was crucial for Chinese and American forces fighting against Imperial Japan.

Japanese forces were able to cut off the land supply routes through Burma in the spring of 1942, leaving the U.S. with no choice but to fly an incredibly dangerous aerial supply route over the Himalayas. The very first of these missions carried fuel that was used by the Doolittle Raid, the legendary bombing attack on Tokyo and other Japanese cities that shattered the aura of invincibility around Japan’s home islands.

The Hump got its name from the formidable flight plan pilots had to follow. They would take off from airfields in India that were barely a hundred feet above sea level, then climb to 18,000 feet to get over the Himalayas, and finally plunge 12,000 feet to reach destinations in the mountains of China. SNIP>>>>

Many of the aircrews brave enough to challenge The Hump did not survive. Pilots in the China theater spoke of running into “granite clouds” as they tried to clear the Himalayan mountains. The Hump became known as the “Aluminum Trail” because of all the wreckage strewn across its rocky fangs.

[chickenlips]

This is long overdue.

"In the later days of the war, after new routes opened and made flying The Hump unnecessary, the Air Transport Command tallied over 500 crashes and 1,300 crew lost. The U.S. government officially lists 690 American personnel as missing and unaccounted for. Those who survived crashes found themselves stranded in the forbidding Himalayas, or the almost equally hostile jungles on the far side of the mountains."

[Equine1952]

Flying supplies to Claire Chennult’s Flying Tigers. A lot were combat pilots too old to get a seat in a fighter. The AVG American Volunteer Group flying over Burma Pappy Boyington flew for the Flying Tigers. It’s good history to review.

[jagusafr]

I did my Squadron Officer School paper on Operation Matterhorn. Those were some hero flight crews.

[DesertRhino]

“The very first of these missions carried fuel that was used by the Doolittle Raid, the legendary bombing attack on Tokyo and other Japanese cities that shattered the aura of invincibility around Japan’s home islands.”

Yeah? They fly the fuel over the Hump, to San Francisco and load it onto the USS Hornet?

Sounds like some AI enthusiasm in the mix. No fuel from Asia was used in the raid. The planes were fueled aboard the USS Hornet, and all crashed or emergency landed (not intact). The only one that landed intact is one that made it to Vladivostok in the USSR.

[Equine1952]

True. Flying to try to stop the Japanese advance in China for the free Chinese, who followed Chaing Kai Shek (spelled wrong I’m sure) to Formosa, now Taiwan. Americans have and will fight wherever freedom is in danger. Sadly I figure here in the US is next.