China Honors Local Airmen for Risky WWII Duty Over Himalayas

Carl Vice says he will never forget a flight he piloted out of Kunming, China, during the summer of 1943, when his plane’s engines shut down at 18,000 feet.

Having just dropped off a load of war materiel, Vice was on the return leg of a supply run over the towering Himalayas to his home base in India when he found himself in a thunderstorm so violent that his huge plane was tossed about like a toy.

“At one point, both of my engines just quit,” said Vice, a Camarillo resident who was 23 at the time. “Moments later, a powerful updraft blew us up and out of the storm and into clear air at 23,000 feet. Luckily for us, we were then able to restart the engines and continue on.”

Such experiences were not uncommon for pilots like Vice and thousands of others who flew in the China-Burma-India theater--one of the lesser-known terrains of World War II.

Now, about 50 years after the war, the Chinese government is paying tribute to the American veterans for their efforts in defending the nation from the Japanese army’s onslaught. The aging pilots recently were given a pair of official Chinese air force wings as a token of that government’s gratitude for their service.

The 75-year-old Vice, one of a handful of Ventura County-based residents who have received a pair of the wings, said he was touched by the honor.

“I’m proud of my service and I think the wings are great,” Vice said. “But I think it’s important for everyone to take the time to remember those pilots who never made it back.”

Soon after the airlift began in 1942, CBI routes from the upper Assam region of India to western China became known as the Aluminum Path because of the wreckage of crashed C-46 Commandos, C-47 Skytrains and B-24 Liberator bombers and tankers--all of which were victimized by bad weather, the towering peaks or attacks by Japanese Zero fighters.

Official estimates say that during the three years of cargo flight operations over The Hump--as the pilots called the Himalayas--at least one plane and its crew were lost each day.

But while the losses were heavy, the quantity of materiel, troops, fuel and food shipped into China was staggering. Records kept by the Popular Bluff, Mo.-based China-Burma-India Hump Pilots Assn. indicate that during July, 1945, more than 78,000 tons of supplies were flown into the country.

“It was tough flying. It really was,” said Jerry Pfister, 72, of Ventura. “I know in my mind what we did was important. But I think other areas of the war captured people’s attention stateside. Ours admittedly wasn’t the most glamorous operation.”

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Pfister, who received his Chinese wings in September, flew Commandos and Liberators while assigned to the theater. He said he remembers icicles forming on his oxygen mask while he nearly froze in the cramped cockpits, despite layers of clothing and thick, sheepskin-lined boots and flight jackets.

“At 20,000 feet, it can get cold as heck,” Pfister said. “I remember that it was cold enough that you didn’t want to ever take a glove off and touch something with your bare hand. And yet when we would be on the ground in India or China, it often would be sweltering.”

William Hartill, 70, a member of the Camarillo-based Confederate Air Force, said he learned firsthand how dangerous the airlift could be when he and his crew mates had to bail out of their Commando after straying off course over the East China Sea.

Hartill, who now lives in Palmdale and was a flight engineer on the plane, remembered anxious moments after he pulled on the rip cord of his parachute and nothing happened.

“I decided to try one more time. I yanked hard and fortunately my chute deployed,” Hartill said. “I learned later that our plane actually made it back to land and took the top off an uninhabited building.”

The Hump Pilots Assn. helped coordinate the Chinese government’s efforts in giving the wings to the pilots.

Peyton Walmsley, the group’s president, said that several thousand former CBI pilots--including fighter and bomber pilots--have received the Chinese air force’s wings.

“It’s been a great shot in the arm for our members,” Walmsley said. “And it’s had the impact of shedding some light on a part of history that not too many people remember or know about.”