How after 70 long years, WW2 US plane crash victims finally went home

Air travellers at the Delhi airport on April 13 would have seen a moving repatriation ceremony being conducted on the tarmac of the technical area by US Air Force officials in the presence of the visiting US defence secretary Ashton Carter. Two flag–draped caskets were then loaded onto a military plane which took off for the US. The killed airmen were finally going home after 70 years.

“Where is my son? I’d give the world to know.

Has he his mission filled? And left the earth below?

Is he up there in that fair land, drinking at the fountains?

Or is he still a wanderer in India’s jungles and mountains?”

This stanza is taken from a lament written by a distraught mother who lost her son in an air crash in Northeast India during the Second World War. There is no bigger tragedy than losing a child. That tragedy, however, gets magnified when the body is not recovered. There is no closure and the soul of the family members remains forever tormented.

She continues:

“He left his home and friends, his country to help save.

Does he now in some far-off country lie, with no marker at his grave?

In my mind, I would travel over mountain, land and sea, my darling boy to find.

When I suddenly realise, my hands are tied behind.”

Many American planes crashed in Arunachal Pradesh during the war while on supply missions to China. The US military says it lost 430 Americans in 90 planes.

Most are believed to have gone down in Arunachal Pradesh as transport planes battled bad weather and the Himalayas — a treacherous route known as "The Hump" — to cross into China to resupply China's besieged army in the city of Kunming, desperately trying to hold out against the invading Japanese. With just a map, a compass and a radio signal to navigate by, the route, passing over 4,500-metre ridges, was so hazardous that the airmen also nicknamed it the “Aluminium Trail".

Many planes suffered from icing, some ran out of fuel, others lost their way in storms and simply crashed into the mountains. Rescue missions were mounted but with sketchy results.

January 25, 1944 was a freezing and stormy day as American B-24 Liberators made their way across the Himalayas. One of the planes was named "Hot as Hell" in honour of the crouching, naked blonde painted on its nose. It was one of the nine American planes that went down that day.

The wreckage was never found.

Until Clayton Kuhles, an Arizona businessmen, who spent his free time trekking through the mountains of Northeast India in search of wreckages of Second World War planes, found the debris of "Hot as Hell" in the thick jungles in December 2006.

Kuhles then found the remains of some other planes in Arunachal Pradesh over the past several years, doggedly logging his discoveries, informing American military authorities and posting them on his website.

India gave search permission to the US in January 2008 after several years of dialogue between the two nations and after discovery of the "Hot as Hell" wreckage in 2006. Surveys were carried out in November 2008, but the Arunachal Pradesh search operation was suspended in 2009 for the next six years.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government put a stop to it in 2009, reasoning that the territory was sensitive because of "strategic, political, ecological and anthropological reasons". China claims the territory of Arunachal Pradesh for itself and several of the crash sites are close to the border. It is reported that the operations were halted in 2009 largely as a result of objections raised by China against allowing US military teams into the state.

The curb on the search operations in Arunachal Pradesh was lifted after a fresh request was made by the US to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Narendra Modi. The NDA government found its predecessor's reasoning invalid. That came as a big relief to the family members of the war-dead who have been pushing for this. The government stated that it was a humanitarian issue and should be dealt in a humanitarian manner.

Specialised identification and recovery teams from the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) began the search for the missing American airmen. During US president Barack Obama’s visit to India in January 2015, the India–US Joint Statement noted India’s ongoing facilitation of humanitarian missions of the US department of defence in India, including a mission in October and November 2014, to recover the remains of fallen US soldiers who served in the Second World War.

However, earlier this month, the government denied permission to the US team for a prolonged search for the remains of the crew of "Hot as Hell". Beginning on October 2, 2015, the team searched the crash area only for 35 days during which they recovered the remains of only one or two people.

Much to the dismay of the families of the eight crew members who perished in the crash, the Obama administration told them the crash site recovery operation of September-November 2015 was cut short because large areas of the site were deemed physically “unstable”.

Eventually, excavated remains of only a few airmen and artifacts of the B-24 bomber ("Hot as Hell") and a C-109 aircraft went back to the US after the ceremony.

And the anguished wait for the families of the remaining airmen continues. There have been instances in India too of military planes crashing in inhospitable terrains with both the plane and bodies being untraceable for a long time.

A Dakota aircraft involved in the 1947-'48 operations against Pakistani incursions in Kashmir, with about 38 passengers, took off from Ambala and crashed in the Pir Panjal range. The plane was found by a shepherd boy in June, 1980.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) ultimately recovered all the human remains and a joint funeral with full honours was conducted on June 11, 1981.

On February 7, 1968, an IAF AN-12 from 25 Squadron, Chandigarh crashed, killing all the crew and passengers. On a freezing morning, as dawn broke over Chandigarh, the AN-12 transport aircraft took off from the fog-enveloped runway and headed towards Leh.

On board were 98 Army personnel on their way to join their duties, and four crew members.

Halfway to Leh, the pilot, Flight Lieutenant HK Singh, decided to turn back because of inclement weather. The aircraft last made radio contact near Rohtang Pass and thereafter vanished.

My father was the squadron commander of the other AN 12 squadron in Chandigarh (44 Squadron). I remember the whole town was shattered by this distressing news. My parents personally visited the families of some of the ill-fated crew members to deliver the news. The reaction of the family members was expectedly gut-wrenching.

It was a battle against odds for the IAF personnel involved in the search for the aircraft. A treacherous terrain, inclement weather and high-altitude disorders stretched their professionalism and determination to the limit. The IAF had launched a vigorous search operation but after about a week, all hope of survival was lost.

After undertaking sorties for a few days following the crash, the IAF had to suspend operations owing to heavy snow. The search operations were resumed in end-May and continued till November, but the aircraft could not be found. The IAF undertook about 500 sorties. Five sorties were undertaken in a single day. The weather conditions and available daylight permitted flying operations to be undertaken for just four-five hours in a day.

The disappearance of the aircraft remained a mystery till 2003 till the body of Sepoy Beli Ram was accidentally discovered by an expedition in the Dhakka Glacier, high in the Chandrabhaga ranges in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

The body was identified from the service book which was found in the pocket of the coat which the jawan was wearing at the time of the crash. Though the body had partially been reduced to a skeleton because of frost, the upper jaw, fingers and some hair were visible. He carried a train ticket from Chandigarh to Meerut. The date of the scheduled train journey was illegible. Ram also had in his pockets four one-rupee notes.

His aged mother Tando Devi said she had never thought she would be able to see her son alive or dead. At last, her wish to see at least her son’s body was realised.

The jawan had married Giano Devi just two years before the crash when she was just 20-year-old. After the crash, the family married Giano Devi with the younger brother of Beli Ram.

Then the body of Lance Naik Kamal Singh Bhandari was found. A money order form was among the documents recovered from the bedding of Bhandari. A book, 'Bhoot Nath', written by Nana Bhai Bhatt was also found in his belongings. Other documents recovered was a geography question paper of Army First Class Certificate of Education Examination and an annual statement of AFPP fund showing a balance of Rs 253.

Most poignantly, his wish to send money to his father was buried under the glacier along with him, as was his dream of appearing in the Army examination.

Three other bodies were recovered in subsequent search missions. In 2013, the fifth body of NCO Jagmail Singh was the last to be recovered. The soldier's identity was established by an identity disk, an insurance policy and a letter found in his pocket.

The long wait of 48 years since the crash has not in any way dimmed the Army's commitment to retrieve the bodies. The soldiers may be long gone but not forgotten and concerted efforts are being made to continue the search until a full and final closure.

The Army will not rest till it gives its perished brethren a befitting "Last Post" in keeping with its highest traditions.