A Tribute to a Hump Pilot by junge1
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Description
Dr. Carl Frey Constein was born on 18 August 1920 in Pennsylvania. He is a retired superintendent of schools.
After the Burma Road fell to Japan early in World War II, the allies had only one way to keep China in the war; fly the supplies over the Himalayas. 'The Hump' was history's first airlift.
In his book 'The Greatest Generation', Tom Brokaw chronicles 47 men and women, none of those served in China-Burma-India, the CBI. That theater of war and the Hump itself rate only a footnote in military history. Yet, at the time, Life Magazine called it the most dangerous non-combat flying in the war, the world's worst weather over the world's highest mountains. More than five hundred planes crashed, most on the high peaks of China. Thirteen hundred pilots and crew were killed, some dying horribly, lingering deaths after bailing out into the Burmese jungle.
Between October 1944 and October 1945 Lieutenant Carl Constein flew C-46 'Commandos' between Chabua, Assam, India and Kunming, China, a distance of 500 miles, hauling aviation fuel. He flew 96 round-trip missions across the treacherous Himalaya Mountains totalling 750 hours flight time, including on January 6-7, 1945.
On that day, according to information available in Chubua, thirteen aircraft were lost due to weather, but according to General Tunner, in charge of the Hump operation, ATC lost nine planes, eighteen crew members, and nine passengers. Nobody knows for certain, but the actual figure may have been as high as fifteen.
The weather phenomenon responsible for the January 6-7 catastrophe apparently was a dense occluded front that had moved across Africa and India, picked up moisture in the Bay of Bengal, and sped east to Assam, arriving in the early morning. From pilot reports there must have been winds shifting from all points of the compass at speeds as high as 150mph and vertical currents more than 200mph. Cloud tops reached 40,000-ft. Some aircraft were never found (The Hump, Dr. Carl Frey Constein).
Dr. Carl Frey Constein wrote about his Hump flying experience in his books 'The Hump', 'Missing in the Himalayas', and 'Tales of the Himalayas'.
This picture was taken on 5 June 2009,
Sig...
Comments (28)
Nice tribute!!
I guess he was lucky by that stage in that the Japanese Zeros would no longer have been a problem to him. Great post.
Superb capture my friend. God Bless.
Super dieser Schnappschuss!
Great story and pic!
A super portrait of this proud and heroic man.
Fantastic portrait and cool information
This is fantastic i love this tribute to them.
Flying tigers was it??.
Fascinante texto e imagem meu amigo, aplausos (5)
It is wonderful you had the opportunity to photograph this brave hero.
sympathetic portrait
Wonderful photo and story of this Hero!!
Gorgeous smile and not much left (SOLDIERS) from the WW2, I have read in a book then when the last WW2 Soldiers die that supposed to be WW3 !!
Shining.
Wonderful tribute.
wonderful portrait
He must have a fascinating story to tell! An excellent shot of this inarguably excellent pilot.
You can only say...'Respect'.. Great shot Sig.. Rob
marvelous tribute
really interesting story.
That is a very charismatic capture, the Doc has a very kindly smile. Interesting read too.
Very good portrait and tribute.
wonderful portrait...
what real heroes are all about
An excellent and LUCKY pilot:) Thanks for telling us about Dr. Carl Sig. Love the expression on his face and those deep set eyes. These old boys won't be around for many more years.
I love to read about the real American heroes and Dr. Carl Constein qualifies!
Great shot love it.