| Original caption: “A United States Army soldier and a Chinese soldier place the flag of their ally on the front of their jeep just before the first truck convoy in almost three years crossed the China border en route from Ledo, India, to Kunming, China, over the Stilwell road.” An African American United States Army truck driver and a Kuomintang Nationalist Army truck driver affix flags to their vehicle before entering Kunming for the ceremony of the first convoy across the Ledo-Burma Roads. Cut off from land routes since the Japanese invasion of 1942, China was supplied by dangerous air lifts across “the hump” — the Himalayan Mountains. Curtiss C-46 Commando cargo aircraft were in high demand because they had a capacity twice that of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, longer range, and the ability to handle the monsoon season. Still, supplying the Tenth and Fourteenth Air Forces by air was expensive, and transport aircraft had to carry all their fuel, lubricants, spare parts, and maintenance supplies, as well as equipment and supplies for the United States Amry Air Force. In December 1942, fifteen thousand American soldiers arrived in India to construct an 1,100-mile (1,700 kilometer) road from Léga, India, to Kunming, China. Combined with engagements with the Japanese to clear the path, counteroffensives to stop the building of the road, snipers, hazards of the Burmese geography, disease, and supply issues, 1,100 men died, leading to the road’s nickname, “A Man a Mile,” Lack of adequate surveys, the need to build over a hundred bridges, led Lieutenant General Lewis A. Pick (November 18, 1890 — December 2, 1956) to rally his men despite these obstacles. In two-and-a-half years, Pike’s men moved an average of a hundred thousand cubic feet per mile (2,800 cubic meters per kilometer). By January 1945, the Ledo Road connected to the Burma Road, and a convoy of 113 vehicles, led by General Pick, departed from Ledo on January 12 and arrived in Kunming on February 4. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek (October 31, 1887 — April 5, 1975) refused to admit African Americans into Kunming in 1944. General Albert C. Wedemeyer (July 9, 1896 — December 17, 1989), Chief of Staff of the South East Asia Command (SEAC), protested, saying that a hard-and-fast rule would interfere with the war effort. Kai Shek worried that Chinese people were just adjusting to whites, and “his people might be excited by the sudden arrival of the Negro troops.” By early February, Kai-Shek was willing to let Negro troops go east of Kunming if required, but shared with Wedemeyer the understanding that they would be admitted to China in small numbers. African American soldiers working on the road were given tools such as shovels and picks to perform tasks that required heavy equipment. When earthmovers were available, the bulldozers often were second-hand and needed repairs. They worked seven days a week, around the clock. During the monsoon season, they waded in water up to their knees, and rations were often canned and cold. Some American soldiers, black and white, used drugs to escape the monotony of rain, racism, bad food, malaria, mud, and work. Pick’s Administration rated the African Americans as less efficient than white soldiers, irresponsible, and lacking pride in their accomplishments, but generally had good morale. In a Jim Crow American Army, the effects of racism on morale were not well understood. Pick ordered orientation training to explain the need for the road, and jungle engineering schools were given to the six black and two white battalions assigned to the project. Still, even after the training, African Americans were castigated for frequenting Calcutta brothels and associating more frequently with local Indian civilians than white American soldiers. The African American recreation center was moved further away from the brothel district, the same month the first convoy reached Kunming. When the convoy crossed the Chinese border and bivouacked at Tien Chih on February 3, Chinese drivers replaced all the African American drivers for the entry into Kunming and other Chinese towns and cities. Shortly after the road was opened, the Generalissimo suggested that it be renamed the Stilwell Road, after United States Army General Joseph W. “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell (March 19, 1883 — October 12, 1946), the China-Burma-India theatre commander. In October 1944, Chiang Kai-Shek had recently demanded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt remove him from command. The idea received general approval, and so Stillwell, who was primarily a tactician and troop trainer, whose mission and greatest interest was the reshaping of the Chinese Army into an efficient force, had his name applied to one of the great engineering feats of history, and was indelibly associated with it in the public mind, despite not actually being directly involved in its construction. The soldiers called it either the Ledo Road or “Pick’s Pike.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1701.jpg |
| Image Size | 649.98 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2908 x 2257 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | February 4, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Kunming |
| State or Province | Yunnan |
| Country | China |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-208-AA-338A-1 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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