Operations

The recovery of Burma would be the constant preoccupation of the American theater commander, one of the war's most controversial figures. 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell had served in China during the interwar years, knew the country, and could speak its language fluently, but sloppiness as an administrator and planner, along with a sharp tongue, ill suited him for his largely diplomatic responsibilities. He blamed British defeatism and Chinese incompetence for the loss of Burma and made snide comments on other Allied leaders, notably Chiang Kai-shek, to whom he referred in his diary as 'Peanut.' On the other hand, if Stilwell seemed overworked at times, it was understandable, given the sheer number of positions he held. He simultaneously served as chief of Chiang's joint Allied staff, President Roosevelt's personal representative to the Chinese leader, administrator of Lend-Lease, and commanding officer of the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater of Operations, which he established on 22 June.

'Flying the Hump, Moonlight, CBI' by Tom Lea. Pilots flying this treacherous route kept Allied supply lines open. (Army Art Collection)

With headquarters at Chungking, a branch office in New Delhi, and a primary mission to supply China, the CBI theater was largely logistical in nature. Cargoes entered the theater at Karachi, Pakistan, and, once the threat from Japanese air power lifted, at Calcutta, India. They then proceeded by railroad, road, and ferry to Assam, the Indian province closest to the Burma border. Theater communications suffered from the fact that the British had designed the defenses of India to meet an attack from the western approaches, leaving the transportation network in the east less well developed. Not only were lines of communications unusually long� Assam was an incredible 67-day journey by rail from Calcutta�but they also were congested and inefficient, plagued by differing railroad gauges, slow construction, and differing national attitudes on allocation of resources. The situation improved somewhat in November 1943 when the Allies reached an agreement for 4,600 American railroad workers to help operate key sections of the lines. Once the goods reached Assam, rickety transport planes had to fly them over the Himalayas to China. Pilots flying this route, called the 'Hump,' had to contend with poor weather, 15,000-foot mountain peaks, and enemy fighter planes operating from a base at Myitkyina.