Museum of WWII remnants to be opened soon: Arunachal CM Pema Khandu

GUWAHATI: Arunachal Pradesh is all set to open a one-of-a-kind museum called ‘The Hump WW2 Museum’ in East Siang district’s Pasighat to showcase recovered remnants of US aircraft which crashed in the state while flying supplies to Chinese forces against the Japanese during the war.

Allied Forces aircraft traversed some 500 miles air route from airbases in Assam to Kunming in China through Arunachal and Myanmar over the Himalayan plateau which came to be known as the “Hump”.Between April 1942 and August 1945, more than 1,600 airmen and about 650 transport planes went missing in the mountains and forests on either side of the “Hump” due to extreme flying conditions, in the longest ever airlift in days of operations during WWII.
During this period, the military aircraft transported nearly 6,50,000 tonnes of supplies like fuel, food and ammunition from airfields in Assam to those in Kunming.
Arunachal CM Pema Khandu took to X to inform about the progress of museum work. “During World War II, the United States flew supplies over the Himalayas, on a route known as ‘The Hump’ because of the altitude of the Eastern Himalaya. Many of their aircraft went missing here and were never found in our then remote jungles and mountains.” he wrote.
“The museum’s name pays tribute to the Hump operation, one of the most remarkable feats of aviation history during the Second World War. The museum is nearing completion and will be inaugurated soon,” he added.
The museum is being set up at the initiative of Khandu and the state government is planning to invite the United States ambassador to India for its inauguration.
In 1942, after the Japanese Army blocked the 1,150 km Burma Road, a mountain highway connecting Lashio in present-day Myanmar and Kunming in China, the US-led allied forces had to undertake one of the biggest airlifts in aviation history.
The pilots of the Allied forces nicknamed the route “The Hump” as their aircraft had to navigate deep gorges and then quickly fly over mountains rising beyond 10,000 feet. The mountains of Arunachal often get unpredictable weather within minutes, zero visibility within seconds and sudden heavy winds, making it difficult for planes and choppers to fly.
According to a US Embassy handout in 2017, investigators from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) returned to India that year to continue the search for remains of US personnel missing since World War II.
In 2016, the DPAA deployed a team to northeast India for 30 days in search of remains of unaccounted-for US airmen. The 2017 was their fifth mission to India since 2013.