Chapter VI: Section V: China-Burma-India5

China’s last important supply link with the Allies, the Burma Road, was closed when the Japanese occupied northern Burma in May 1942. Despite her isolation, China resisted the Japanese and remained an active ally. The importance of giving China sufficient support to keep her in the war led to the Allied plan to re-establish surface communications with China and to increase supply by air over the Hump.

[5] See Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland, _Stilwell’s Mission to China_, Washington, D.C., 1953; and Romanus and Sunderland, _Stilwell’s Command Problems_, Washington, D.C., 1956, in the series _U.S. ARMY IN WORLD WAR II._

In August 1942 a training center was established at Ramgarh, India, for training the poorly equipped Chinese troops; concurrently, training centers were also established in China. In December 1942 the Allies began the construction of a new road leading from Ledo, India, across northern Burma to an intersection with the Burma Road near the China border. Subsequently this was supplemented by a pipeline for aviation and fuel oil from Calcutta, India, to Kunming, China. Pending the reopening of ground communications with China, the only route of supply available was the air transport system over the spur of the Himalayas from the Assam valley, India, to Kunming, a distance of approximately 500 air miles.

Fighting in Burma was relatively light in 1943; however, Allied aircraft pounded enemy airfields, communications, and rear installations. Rangoon, important center of the enemy supply system, was bombed repeatedly with damaging results.

In China during 1943, air attacks constituted the only offensive operations by the Allies. U.S. planes carried out attacks against enemy bases in Burma, Thailand, Indo-China, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Formosa. Shipping along the China coast was attacked with little loss to the enemy. In 1944 B-29’s based in China attacked targets in Manchuria, on Formosa, and in Japan.

During this time the Japanese had increased their China-based air strength but were deploying their best planes and pilots to meet the threat in the Southwest Pacific.

The Allied counteroffensive in north Burma, which started early in 1944, continued to the end of the year with great intensity. Landings in the Philippines and U.S. naval operations in the China Sea threatened the Japanese supply line to Burma and by the end of January 1945, large groups of enemy forces were retreating from north Burma. As a result of the Allied advance in Burma in 1944, the entire route of the new Ledo Road was cleared except for a small stretch near its junction with the Burma Road. On 4 February the first Allied convoy traveled over the Ledo Road, which was renamed the Stilwell Highway.

In the latter stages of the Burma Campaign, American troops together with Chinese troops were flown to China. Serious Japanese offensives in China during the summer of 1944 and early 1945 were terminated in the spring of 1945 and the enemy began to withdraw from south and central China.

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA

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THE COLLAPSE OF JAPAN AND THE END OF THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC