Us Official Photographs

Helicopter to Myitkyina Burma

In response to an urgent radio message from Major General Howard C. Davidson, General Henry H. Arnold ordered a Helicopter to be flown in a Douglas C-54 from Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio to Myitkyina, Burma to rescue a party that had crashed in a North American B-25 in the Burma Jungle. American Airlines crew had flown the C-54 from Wright Field to Karachi, India and there ATC took over. The first stop on the mission, after leaving Karachi, was to be Singkaling, Burma, a British emergency fighter landing strip. However the Helicopter ran short of fuel and landed on a sand bank of the Chindwin River. It was refueled when two five gallon tins of gas were flown in from Myitkyina in a Vultee L-5. 25 January 1945.