A casket containing the remains of US pilots who supported Chinese troops during World War II is given to a US Department of Defense official at a ceremony at a museum in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, yesterday. [Photo/CNS]
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A casket containing the remains of US pilots who supported Chinese troops during World War II is given to a US Department of Defense official at a ceremony at a museum in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, yesterday. [Photo/CNS] |
On the evening of January 6, 1942, he said, he was ordered to carry petrol from India to Kunming in Yunnan Province.
Heavy storms had cut off radio communication and navigation signals, and he was forced to fly blind through the darkness.
"When I saw the lights of Kunming, it was the most beautiful scene I had ever seen," he recalled.
Later that night, he was told the US Army Air Force had lost nine aircraft and 42 crew.
The route was so treacherous that all pilots had a piece of cloth attached to their uniforms in Chinese characters informing people who they were.
Wang Shujun's father saved seven crew members in 1944. Wang, 80, lived in the township of Fulin in Hanyuan County, Sichuan, where aircraft plying the Hump passed every day.
"I remember my father seeing a plane with black smoke; he knew that it was going to crash," Wang said.
Her father, Yang Renan, followed the plumes of smoke and found six Americans by a river, all injured.