The Hump

"[In this work] the first concentrated historical study of the world's first sustained combat airlift operation, John D. Plating argues that the Hump airlift was initially undertaken to serve as a display of American support for its Chinese ally, which had been at war with Japan since 1937. However, by 1944, with the airlift's capability gaining momentum, American strategists shifted the purpose of air operations to focus on supplying American forces in China in preparation for the U.S.'s final assault on Japan ... Drawing on extensive research that includes Chinese and Japanese archives, Plating tells a ... story in a context that relates it to the larger movements of the war and reveals its significance in terms of the development of military air power"--Jacket.