US ambassador to inaugurate ‘Hump World War II’ museum in Arunachal Pradesh

 OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: A unique museum showcasing remnants of an aircraft that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh during World War II will be inaugurated by US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti. Garcetti will inaugurate the 'Hump World War II' museum at Pasighat in the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday, officials from the district said. The museum is being set up at the initiative of Chief Minister Pema Khandu. Khandu said on October 26 this year, while reviewing the progress of the museum, that it would pay tribute to 'Hump Operation', one of the most remarkable feats of aviation history.

During World War II, the Allied Forces, led by the United States, flew supplies over the Himalayas. The route was known as 'The Hump' because of the altitude of the Eastern Himalayas. Many of their aircraft went missing in Arunachal Pradesh and were never found in the remote jungles and mountains. The Hump route traverses regions of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tibet, Yunnan (China), and Myanmar, and it is estimated that nearly 650 aircraft crashed in these areas during World War II due to the extreme flying conditions. In 1942, when the Japanese Army blocked the 1,150-kilometre 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' because their aircraft had to navigate deep gorges and then quickly fly over mountains rising beyond 10,000 feet.

From 1942 to 1945, military aircraft transported nearly 6,50,000 tonnes of supplies like fuel, food, and ammunition from airfields in Assam to those in Yunnan, China. The mountains of Arunachal Pradesh often get unpredictable weather, making it difficult for planes and choppers to fly even now. According to a US Embassy handout from 2017, investigators from the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) returned to India that year to continue the search for the 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 the remains of unaccounted-for US airmen. There are approximately 400 US airmen missing in India, most of whose remains are believed to be located in the Himalayan Mountains in northeast India.

Meanwhile, elaborate security arrangements have been made for the visit of the US Ambassador to Pasighat, East Siang superintendent of police Sumit Kumar Jha informed. Contingents of the central armed police forces, the state armed reserve police, and the India Reserve Battalion (IRBn) have been deployed in addition to the district police for security, law and order, and traffic management duties, he said. “We are also taking preventive measures like area dominance, regular patrolling, etc. to rule out any security-related threats to the VIPs,” the SP added.

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