Show the burma road chinas cainas life line Is packed with Heroic ism while death always lurks by CLIFF LANGE released by western newspaper per union dispatches to the newspapers in the united states have been keeping the people well informed on the japanese activity in bombing the burma road life line of china since the united states declared war on japan news coming out on this famous road has been pushed to inside pages of newspapers because of other war activities closer to the people in the united states nevertheless this road which means so much to china still plays an important part in the activity of the allies against their enemies this famous road begins at rangoon india as a rail line northeastward to cashio near the chinese frontier lat cashio the goods for embattled china are transferred to trucks and carried along the the twisting laibl dangerous wreckage strewn highway to headquarters of generalissimo chiang kai government from the railhead at cashio the burma road in its miles crosses mountain ranges feet high and then plunges into canyons of two of the worlds greatest rivers the jungle hedged mekong and the verdant trimmed malween Sal within the distance of 40 miles easily an hours travel on a highway in the united states this fascinating ad venture packed highway rises and dips twice from 2500 feet to feet throughout its tortuous length the road twists and turns through some of the most hazardous driving terrain in the world the roadbed in some places is just about nine feet wide but never more than twenty it hugs the edge of seemingly bottomless chasms and sneaks over chassis breaking ridges engineering feat it is no wonder that engineers consider this road as one of the worlds greatest engineering feats comparing with chinas cainas other great defensive effort the great wall fortunately this important highway carrying supplies to the capital of china was completed to its present condition before japan attacked not 7 another burma road casualty on one of the hundreds of hairpin hair pin curves along the route bringing war supplies to embattled chinas cainas capital in the interior since the road opened at least 1300 trucks have been destroyed by rolling off preci apices this off the road casualty is not as bad as some of them sometimes off the road means a mere drop of something like feet only the possessions of the united states in the pacific but also those of the dutch and british the united states way before the attack by the japs fully realized the great value of china as an ally for over a year now the U S has been sending supplies over this road and more recently she has been seeing to it that the frequent bombings by the japs go is unchallenged c allenger allen ged by having volunteer co corps S of U S aviators patrol the road ready for a scrap at any time military authorities are not reticent in saying that this tortuous grueling road may decide the battle of asia now well under way for without supplies going to general kai capital china would soon be forced to drop out of the way possibly ask for terms with her hated enemy japan who has been attempting to batter her into submission for at least five years literally the burma road is the lifeline life line to china and her armies except for the overland route from soviet union turkestan Turk estan it is the only inlet for material which china 30 w W W this unusual shot of the burma road as it twists and curves over the mountains to has been compared to a snake possibly it will as the story notes be the snake that will help strike down japan in her present fight against the democracies needs so badly the present conflict between the soviets and the nazis has practically cut off the supplies which had been coming from russia in the north recently american truck line transportation experts came through here on general kai invitation on their way to inspect the road their purpose was to put greater ordination coordination co and efficiency in its operation for reports of indifference lassitude and perhaps graft began to reach the generals ear with a typical westerners reaction he did something about it the U S transportation officials came over for a checkup check up over trucks a day are rolling over the road loaded with american military supplies sent by terms of the lend lease bill and relief supplies sent through the united china relief these same trucks returning from china carry tungsten tung oil and other strategic U S defense program materials to pay for these supplies sudden death many lives were lost in building this road today the loss of lives continues not so much from bombing by japanese airmen continually blasting away at it especially the two major suspension bridges across the malween and the mekong but from the drivers and the road workers e r s on it since the road opened 1300 trucks have been destroyed by falling off the precipices along the hundreds of hairpin turns such as shown in the picture above thousands too have fallen victim to malaria for the road traverses the worst malarial swamp in the world medical relief on the road today is under the care of the american society of friends member agency of united china relief since the inspection of the road by the traffic experts invited over by generalissimo kai shek many projects calculated to ta eliminate inefficiency and truck delays have been instituted A complete system of auto repair gasoline and dispatching stations is is being established along this vital route A school for automobile mechanics chanice cs to teach the essentials of repair and maintenance has been opened in by the college of science of the university of the arent going to let it be said that they once being shown how d do anything to prevent their lifeline life line from functioning properly at the present time the trip over the burma road requires from 10 to 12 days of hard tough driving after the improvements recommended by the experts are made the trip will take a week or less asphalting Asp halting will improve the efficiency of the road and also reduce the ever lurking risks hewn by hand the burma road will then be greatly different from the day when it was first completed by peasant men and women working entirely with hand tools and who finished the job in a little more than a year american and british engineers estimated the job would take four years to complete the immensity of the project is near appalling when it is remembered that those peasants actually hacked the road out of the granite cliff edges within a very short time the hand crushed rock and gravel topping this highway for freedom will be asphalted in a short time when the ton figure is reached providing the force of the japan military machine achieve and keep the upper hand of the present battle now raging the turning point irr in the war over here will be reached for then goods will be moving in sufficient volume to permit chinas cainas armies armies to undertake their first major sustained ned counteroffensive counter offensive A counteroffensive counter offensive which will make the recent one against the japs who were moving in on the beleaguered beleaguer ed british at shanghai small in comparison watch the military activities evolving about the burma road there too you will read more tales of great heroic ism such as have surrounded the road ever since it was first begun the fate of the burma road will decide the fate of the battle of the pacific and the battle of the atlantic too |