Customer Reviews

FLYING THE HUMP TO CHINA

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The author trained as a pilot in the US Airforce in WW2, qualified to fly transports and was assigned to fly "The Hump," the airlift route from India to China that kept Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang forces together with US aircraft based in China supplied and equipped. It's a fascinating and very personal account, written in 2004 when the author was in his eighties. The book includes over 150 b&w photo's, most of them taken by the author during the war. They make a fascinating inclusion in the book and again, give a very personal view of the war. They're generally not the sort of photo's that make it into your standard history books and for that alone, the price of the book is almost justified.

The author gives a very personal account, the first half of the book focuses on the author's story and pays no real attention to the course of the war, the fronts, strategy etc, except in so far as it has an impact on the author. A good chunk of the second half provides an overview and a little bit of a history of the airlift, enough to give you a broad outline, but it's not a detailed study. The final couple of chapters is the authors autobiograhy up to the date of writing the book (2004 or thereabouts).

Overall, I found it very interesting as a personal account. There were many such books written immediately after WW2, most of them long out of print now. It's good to see an account such as this published and available, it provides an interesting personal view of what it all looked like to the guys doing the grunt work during the war. Kudo's to the author for taking the time to write this account and have it published, giving all of us a little more insight into what the WW2 veterans went through.

The book itself - well, the grammer is pretty person all (lol), seems there wasn;t a professional editor on this one - but it has a real authenticity and a raw edge to it that you don't get in the standard military histories. If you're a WW2 flying buff or interested in The Hump, this book is worth your while. If it's a chronicle of The Hump that you're looking for, don't bother. The author writes a bit about the history of the hump but it's not a historical study or anything close - there's other books that handle that aspect much better. A great read for all that and worth picking up if this is a subject that interests you - here's few enough of these personal accounts that this one is a valuable piece of history.

My very good friend had a husband that was assigned one of the USAAF flying units that took part in flying the hump, so as to get supplies, gas, ammunition and medical supplies to to those Chinese Army Units that were fighting the Japanese on the ground and in the air.

The children were all adult and this book, along with the other two that were published, all on the same subject, do an excellent job of telling the children just one of the operations that there father took part in during World Wae II.