Robert L. Moore, a WWII Hump pilot, addresses the opening ceremony of "Remembering Heroes—80th Anniversary of the Flying Tigers and America's Second World War Air Defense of China Photo Expo" in the U.S. on April 9 (XINHUA) 

Robert L. Moore, a 98-year-old Hump pilot, was welcomed as a "super idol" when he arrived at Tampa International Airport in Florida for a trip to Washington, D.C. on April 8. He was escorted inside by the airport's Police Chief Charlie Vazquez. Passengers and airport employees stopped to thank Moore for his service in World War II (WWII), with many even asking to take a picture with him.

"I didn't expect any of this," Moore said about all the attention. On that day, he was heading for the opening ceremony of "Remembering Heroes—80th Anniversary of the Flying Tigers and America's Second World War Air Defense of China Photo Expo", which was to be held in the National Air and Space Museum on April 9.

During WWII, American and Chinese pilots teamed up to fly the Hump, a trans-Himalayan air route opened up in 1942, to deliver supplies from Assam in India to Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in southwest China for fighting against the Japanese invasion. It was one of the world's most dangerous air routes. The mission was carried out by the India-China Division of the Air Transport Command (ATC) of the U.S. Army and the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). Moore, who flew more than 70 Hump trips, was an airman of the India-China Division.

Besides Moore, CNAC's Peter J. Goutiere, who celebrated his 108th birthday on September 28, is among the few surviving Hump pilots in the U.S.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Hump Mission. "It's great to be part of the group that flew over the Hump during WWII and to still be around for the anniversary," Goutiere, who flew 680 Hump trips, told Beijing Review.

Peter J. Goutiere, a former China National Aviation Corporation pilot who airlifted supplies to China to aid the fight against the Japanese invasion during World War II, in 1944; a 107-year-old Goutiere in 2021 (COURTESY PHOTOS)

Flying the Hump

In the early 1940s, Goutiere and Moore successively came to help China fight against the Japanese invasion in the main Eastern theater of WWII, also known as the World Anti-Fascist War.

Japanese troops began to invade the northeastern region of China on September 18, 1931, and launched a full-scale invasion of China in July 1937. Soon, they had taken control of almost all harbors along China's coastline, leaving the Burma Road, which linked the Yunnan Provincial capital, Kunming, with Lashio in neighboring Burma (now Myanmar), as the only practical route for international supplies into China. The road was opened to traffic in August 1938. Military and other supplies were first transported to India and then delivered to China via the Burma Road.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, triggering the outbreak of the Pacific War. China entered the Anti-Fascist Alliance on January 1, 1942, teaming up with the U.S. and the UK to fight against their common enemies in the China-Burma-India Theater. At that time, Burma was a British colony.

However, after Burma's submission to the Japanese in May 1942, the road was closed, leaving China's war of resistance entirely cut off from international supplies. It was for this reason that the Hump was opened up. When the pilots crossed the southern section of the Himalayas, the Gaoligong Mountains and the Hengduan Mountains, the towering peaks looked to them like the humps of camels. It is from this resemblance that the air route came to be known as the Hump. It was the military supply lifeline for China from 1942 to 1945. High altitude, perilous weather and Japanese fighter planes were among the major dangers faced by the pilots on every supply mission. The route was consequently dubbed the "Skyway to Hell."

The Hump was not a single route but a collection of routes. Of the two main east-west routes, the northern route was longer and higher, and the high-altitude crossing meant pilots and crew faced frequent extreme weather events. The southern route was shorter and the mountains were lower, but often no less perilous. Its position close to Japanese-controlled Burma put it within striking distance of Japanese fighter planes and the supply missions were often attacked.

After May 1942, Japanese fighter planes often flew south to north to intercept the cargo planes that flew west to east to carry supplies to China. When defenseless cargo planes met enemy fighter planes, there was little chance to escape. On October 13, 1943, the CNAC's No.72 cargo plane was shot down by three Japanese fighter planes. All three crew members were killed. From then on, the CNAC decided to either exclusively fly the northern route or fly at night.

Adding to the risk, there was no weather station along the Hump. The best source of weather information came from the pilots who had just flown through each area. However, "the weather on the Hump changed from minute to minute, mile to mile," wrote William Henry Tunner, commander of the India-China Division, in his 1964 memoir Over the Hump.

January 6, 1945 was the most tragic day in the history of the Hump. Winds at speeds of 161 km per hour created strong updrafts over the ridges and downdrafts over the valleys. The radios were filled with cries of "mayday" and at least 15 aircraft were lost on that single day, all due to bad weather, according to Tunner. "Flying the Hump was considered as hazardous as flying a combat mission over Germany," he recalled.

The high accident rate resulted in a severe shortage of professional staff. Pilots often flew two round trips in one day, which fatigued them. "You asked me how it felt flying over the Hump? It was the fatigue. Other than the terrible weather and Japanese fighter planes, we had to fly round the clock. I can still feel the exhaustion today," Deng Chonghuang, a former CNAC co-pilot, wrote on October 29, 2003 in a letter to Liu Xiaotong, author of Flying the Hump published in 2005.

The CNAC was a Sino-U.S. joint venture established in 1929. Most of its pilots were American and the majority of its co-pilots and radio operators were Chinese. Deng joined the CNAC in 1943 and completed more than 600 Hump flights before the end of WWII.

"It was suicidal to fly over the Hump. Every trip, in our eyes, was a gamble with our lives. But whenever it was time to fly, every pilot would pack the parachute and be aboard without a second thought. We all knew that it was the only lifeline to our country. As long as the war hadn't ended, the cargo flights couldn't cease. There needed to be someone to deliver the supplies. How could we youngsters desert our motherland when it was scourged by invaders?" Deng wrote.

Photos of U.S. Hump pilots who lost their lives while helping airlift military supplies to China during WWII. These photos are kept at the Memorial of the Anti-Japanese War in West Yunnan, in Tengchong, Yunnan Province (WEI YAO)

Between life and death 

When pilots flew over the Hump on a sunny day, they would spot a trail of gleaming aluminum through the mountains. Those were the remains of crashed planes, scattered along a notoriously accident-prone section of the route.

When planes crashed over the Hump, the chance for those on board to survive was slim. The areas where fliers bailed out were over rain forests, snow-capped mountains or even deserts. Most who parachuted from the planes died of hunger, hypothermia, injuries or even Japanese attacks.

But there were some exceptions, including CNAC pilot Ursel Elbert Coulson, who lost an engine while flying over the Hump on August 31, 1944. Coulson and his crew had to bail out over the jungle of north Burma. He landed in a tree where the ground was heavily covered with underbrush. Eventually, he climbed down the leech-infested tree and found a village and its leader connected him to the search party. He was the lone survivor of the incident.

Coulson gave a humorous account of his ordeal. Rescuers asked if he had been hungry during his three days sitting in the tree. He replied that hunger hadn't bothered him too much as he sustained himself on leeches. Seeing the rescuers' incredulous looks, he added, "They were eating me. Why shouldn't I eat them? I was just getting my own blood back."

China National Aviation Corporation pilot Ursel Elbert Coulson (left) and a coworker pose in front of a cargo plane in the 1940s (COURTESY PHOTO) 

Every American airman who helped with China's resistance against Japanese aggression received a "passport to safety" from the then Chinese government—a strip of silk with Chinese characters which read, "This is a foreigner who helps China fight. Be you military or civilian, please help and protect him or her." Many pilots stitched the silk on the back of their jackets. And it worked. Most Chinese voluntarily came to their aid when they were forced down. As Tunner put it, "Once in China, the airmen would find nearly all natives friendly and most helpful."

Thanks to the concerted efforts of the India-China Division of ATC and the CNAC, more than 800,000 tons of military supplies and other critical materials were airlifted to China from 1942 to 1945, providing much needed support to secure the victory in resisting Japanese aggression. The supplies were not only for the Chinese army but also the Flying Tigers, or the American Volunteer Group founded and commanded by Claire Chennault in 1941 as an air force to directly resist the Japanese in China. "If it hadn't been for you and your convictions and your fine ATC organization, we wouldn't have won the war in China," General Chennault told Tunner at a ceremony held in Washington D.C. many years later.

Continuous connections 

When addressing the opening ceremony of the photo expo on April 9, Moore recalled his old days airlifting supplies to China via the Hump. Qin Gang, Chinese ambassador to the U.S., paid tribute to the Flying Tigers and recognized the significance of the Hump at the ceremony. "History should never be forgotten. It deserves to be remembered and honored by future generations," he said.

Over the past eight decades, people from China and the U.S. have continued to commemorate the Hump and the joint fight of the two countries. In 1993, China raised a monument in Kunming in tribute to fallen Hump pilots. In 2002, the bronze statue of CNAC pilot James R. Fox was unveiled at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in the U.S. Three years later, the Yunnan Nujiang Memorial Hall of the Hump was completed.

China and the U.S. have also been working closely to search for the remains of U.S. pilots who assisted China in WWII. In 2015, Chinese volunteers found some remains of U.S. airmen who died in an air crash in 1943 at the Rogo Glacier in Bomi County, Nyingchi, Tibet Autonomous Region. The location of the crash was at an altitude of 4,100 meters. The remains were then transferred to the U.S. in the same year.

Hump pilots and crew members from both countries have gathered in China for many times. Since 2000, Goutiere has visited China four times. In 2007, he revisited Kunming Wujiaba Airport in Yunnan, one of the key bases along the Hump. Goutiere identified a section of the old runway he used in the 1940s, which gave him a pleasant surprise. He took home many stones he found on the runway, as a souvenir.

Although most Hump pilots have passed away, their descendants work hard to keep the Hump memories alive and cherish the legacy that comes along with them. Coulson's daughter Eve Coulson is one of them. When her father died in 1959, she was eight years old. She got to know her father's China story from his essays and from Goutiere, who worked closely with him in the 1940s."I am proud of being a descendant of a Hump pilot. My pride has grown over time," she told Beijing Review.

Eve Coulson is now vice president of the CNAC Association, a post-WWII reunion group in the U.S. that began meeting in 1954. Ten years ago, she visited China with Goutiere to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Hump Mission. She believes that person-to-person connections are helpful for improving Sino-U.S. ties, which have reached a low ebb in recent years.

Zhu Junkun, head of the Yunnan Flying Tigers Research Institute, has kept in touch with many descendants of Hump pilots and Flying Tigers. "We all believe that difficulties are temporary and friendship is the way forward," Zhu told Beijing Review. "The Hump is an example of how the two countries worked together to tackle common challenges. Commemorating the Hump is a good way to promote China-U.S. ties," he added.

As Moore put it in a recent letter to Qin, "Friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries are essential to world peace and survival… I believe that China and the U.S., two countries with a history of cooperation, can be an example for the rest of the world."

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

Comments to linan@cicgamericas.com