"Flying the Hump"-- Part 3: "Aluminum Alley"

"In late 1944, the operation was flying mostly daylight and  good weather," wrote Wendall A. Phillips.  To increase tonnage delivered, the planes were ordered into the air anytime of the day and any kind of weather. "Of course, the tonnage rapidly improved but, so did our losses in 'Aluminum Alley' as we called it.

Mr. Phillips continued:  "The Hump became littered with with our aircraft.  On a clear day, you could see the sun reflecting off the crashed planes lying there."

The supply flights brought everything from troops to needed supplies, to a cow needed to supply milk to a remote base, light weapons and even a falcon trained to attack Japanese carrier pigeons (with mice aboard to feed it).

The main cargo, however was 55-gallon drums of aviation fuel.

--GreGen