The Dawn in China

BATTLE OF ASIA The Dawn in China

The night had been seven years long, but now China could see the first glow of dawn. Brigadier General William H. Tunner's transport planes were flashing over the Hump, one every two and a half minutes. Brigadier General Lewis A. Pick's trucks were thundering up the newly opened Ledo-Burma Road, past banners reading "Welcome Honorable Truck Convoy," "Welcome Material Help."

On the battlefields northeast of Canton, darkness persisted. The Japanese who had overrun the American air bases at Suichwan and Kanhsien pressed on to Namyung, source of steel-hardening wolfram. The great airfield at Sincheng, big enough for B-29s, was lost just nine days after an army of coolies had completed the heartbreaking task of pounding the runways smooth and straight.

But war supplies were coming in; that was the important thing. The Chinese high command, in new headquarters at Kunming, prepared to muster its best forces: the American-trained First and Sixth Armies from India, the troops of bushy-mustached, "100-Victories" Marshal Wei Li-huang, the battle-tried formations of hot-tempered, half-pint General Hsueh Yueh. From Yuennan's high plateau these troops could look out over China's gullied lands; strike out to aid the Allies who might some day land on the coast.

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