Flying the HUMP was called the most dangerous flying anywhere in the world, and the toll extracted by the Himalaya Mountains, both in aircraft and human lives, was disproportionately high when compared to the other theaters of World War II. The consistently bad weather over the mountains and the seasonal monsoons below, coupled with the ever constant danger of Japanese fighers made flying from India into China and Burma more hazardous than bombing missions over Berlin. Yet the toll could have been higher if not for the Search and Rescue operations developed pretty much on the fly. During the first six months of the China airlift, tonnage carried over the hump was steadily increasing. But with the increased tonnage also came an alarming number of accidents and crashes. Still, it took one somewhat extraordinary event to stir the ATC command to action. In early August, 1943, twenty men were forced to abandon their crippled transport plane over the jungles of Burma. Among them were high ranking State Department officials, Chinese officials, and CBS war correspondent Eric Sevareid. On what could be called a spur of the moment decision, a search and rescue operation was put together and over the period of a month, all twenty men were rescued and brought back safely. During September of that year, spurred by the success of the Sevareid rescue (I call it that for lack of a better term), more and more air crews were brought home by S&R missions put together on an Ad Hoc basis. No officially recognized S&R unit was established until October, 1943, when Captain John "Blackie" Porter was given the assignment of Sector Air Rescue Officer for the Eastern Sector. Captain Porter's team started out small and was hand picked by him. In the early going, he had to borrow planes for his missions until he was at last given two aging C-47's. Eventually, his team grew to include three other pilots and ten enlisted men. On October 25, 1943, the 1352nd Army Air Force Base Unit came into being with search and rescue as its mission. Captain Porter flew his missions out of Chabua. Other units were established at some of the other bases. The efforts of the S&R teams proved that it was feasable to search for downed fliers and try to bring them home. The statistics show that during the rest of the operation, 79% of the air crew members who initially survived their crash or bail out made it home safely. Search and Rescue on the HUMP Charles Deane Evans Charles Deane Evans: Veterans History Project (Library of Congress Veterans History Project Interactive Image Viewer Found these pictures Flying the Hump between China and India, 1944 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
