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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0997.PDF
MAY 24TH, 1945 FLIGHT 553 Combat C TaskFo ^-CHARLES Sqn. Ldr "The Biggest Logistical Nightmare of the War" : Supplying the 14th Army in Burma : 2,200 Tons and 1,600 Troops Transported Every Day THE.fall of Rangoon brings to an end—for the momentat least—one of the most amazing sustained aircampaigns of the war. Since last May—that is for exactly 12 months—the whole of the British 14th Army, fighting its major actions down the length of Burma, has been supplied and main- tained almost exclusively by air. From the edge of the Imphal Plain and throughout its 1,300-mile advance to Mandalay, the 14th had practically no other life link with its supply bases and its ports tiian the fleet of R.A.F. and American Dakotas upon wljiro it depended for its bullets, its petrol, its guns, its ammunition, and even its men. There have been many air-supply feats in this war which ''iive achieved great publicity—the Arnhem lift was one— i'ie food-dropping to the Dutch in recent weeks was an- other: But none of these operations bears any comparison with the enormous and sustained effort of the Dakotas of Eastern Air Command. At the climax of this great air lift in March, the Dakotas carried to the 14th Army 70,000 tons of supplies, 48,000 troops, and evacuated 16,000 wounded. This works out *•" approximately 2,200 tons and 1,600 troops transported by air on the Burma Front each and every day. I have just come back from Burma and, while I was out there, I saw something of the air and the ground organi- WITH the end of the war in Europe, the centre of interest moves to the East. Japan is now alone against the might of the Allies, and air war will play its part, as it has done in the West, in bringing defeat to the enemy. For more than a year, the British and American Air Forces have been doing splendid work in Burma, and without them the 14th Army would still have been for from Rangoon. Sqn. Ldr. Charles Gardner has just returned from Burma, and we have been fortunate enough to arrange for him to write a series of articles on various aspects of the Burma campaign, tte first of which appears herewith. Indians loading a Dakota with ammunition and stores tobe flown to a forward airstrip. The wide doors make loading or discharging comparatively simple
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