Mail for the Guys

Laboring over the cruel mountain "Hump Route" from India, a U.S. transport plane drew near its China base with 5,000 precious pounds of mail from home. The pilot, Lieut. Roy Thomas, noticed a scudding cloud ahead. Then:

"Suddenly we saw a ragged edge, nosed up, and then boom!--the damned cloud had a rock in it. We thought that was the end and expected to spin. Instead we gained a little altitude. . . . The hydraulic system was out and we discovered a wheel was gone. . . . Then we found we had some control and [CoPilot Lieut. Cecil] Gibson agreed he was game to try to land. It took all our strength, both fighting all the way, to bring her down. . . . We knew a lot of guys in China would be mighty disappointed if the mail was lost."

When he saw his airplane on the ground, Thomas understood why it was a tough landing. The mountain-top collision had knocked the left helf of the tail off.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.