[Explanation] Located in the Grand View Commercial City in the center of Kunming, attentive people can see a "probing" wing out of a low wall. This wing carries memories of the "hump route". Recently, the reporter saw this wing in the Grand View Commercial City.
[Commentary] This is the wing of the No. 53 transport aircraft on the Hump route, and the words "China Airlines" can still be seen on the wing. After being transported back to Kunming from the Gaoligong Mountain on the Sino-Myanmar border in 1996, it has been displayed here. Regarding the history of this wing and the No. 53 transport plane, it is built into a "Grand View Hump Memorial" for citizens and tourists to visit for free.
[Explanation] According to historical records, on March 11, 1943, 24-year-old American pilot Jimmy Fox and Chinese pilots Tan Xuan and Wang Guoliang flew the Hump 53 transport plane loaded with strategic supplies from Wujiaba Airport, Kunming, China. Shortly after takeoff, Aircraft 53 lost contact with the ground when it flew over the Pianma Pass of Gaoligong Mountain, Yunnan, China. After 53 years of unremitting searching, the people of China and the United States finally found the wreckage of No. 53 aircraft in 1996.
[Same period] Zhuang Jinbiao, head of Kunming Grand View Hump Memorial Hall
After 53 years of searching, it was finally discovered in 1996. With the efforts of the local government, after many hardships, it was carried by a piggyback, pulled by a Dongfeng car, and finally pulled to Kunming, where Chen was placed.
[Explanation] The hump route is the air lifeline for the joint efforts of China and the Allies to fight the Japanese invaders in the middle and late World War II. According to statistics, in the three-year and three-month period experienced by the hump route, as many as 609 aircraft were lost on the route, and 1,500 flight crews were sacrificed. Therefore, it was also called the "death route".
[Commentary] The memorial also displays the breathing mask, earphones, first aid kit and other items used by the crew found in the wreckage of the aircraft, as well as a series of historical artifacts related to the "hump route" such as the tire of the transport aircraft 53.
[Same period] Zhuang Jinbiao, head of Kunming Grand View Hump Memorial Hall
After so many years of collecting data, historical documents related to the hump route, visiting local people who knew about the incident at that time, and finally built the Daguan Hump Memorial Hall here.
[Commentary] Zhuang Jinbiao said that the original intention of the construction of the memorial hall was to enable future generations to look forward to the martyrs and tell the history and contribution of the hump route. At the same time, this period of history also witnessed the development of Sino-US friendly relations. The next step is to build the memorial hall better and more standardized so that more people can remember this history.
[Same period] Zhuang Jinbiao, head of Kunming Grand View Hump Memorial Hall
Since there is a purpose to run this museum, it must definitely make it more standardized, more structured, closer to the citizens or the society, and work in such a direction.
Reporter Du Xiaoxiao Kunming reports
Editor in charge: [Lu Yan]