Us Official Photographs

Gasoline flown over the Hump in China

APB #493. Gasoline is flown over the hump in Boeing B-29's with belly tanks, and by Douglas C-47's carrying drums. In China the drums are stacked, and the Chinese help open them and pour the contents into an open trough from which it is pumped into large storage tanks. Cpl. Alex Kautras of Philadelphia, Pa., is in complete charge of this operation once the gasoline is unloaded from the planes. The empty drums are not salvaged, because gasoline fumes which remain in the empty gasoline drums can cause an explosion or fire and this makes the drums much too dangerous to fly over the hump.