The Stilwell Road
The Stilwell Road
The Stilwell Road, original name Ledo Road, highway 478 mi (769 km) long that links northeastern India with the Burma Road, which runs from Burma to China. During World War II the Stilwell Road was a strategic military route.
History of The Stilwell Road
The Ledo Road (from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming, Yunnan, China) was an overland connection between India and China, built during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver supplies to China and aid the war effort against Japan. After the Japanese cut off the Burma Road in 1942 an alternative was required, hence the construction of the Ledo road. It was renamed the Stilwell Road, after General Joseph Stilwell of the U.S. Army, in early 1945 at the suggestion of Chiang Kai-shek. It passes through the Burmese towns of Shingbwiyang, Myitkyina and Bhamo in Kachin state.
In the 19th century, British railway builders had surveyed the Pangsau Pass, which is 1,136 metres (3,727 feet) high on the India-Burma border, on the Patkai crest, above Nampong, Arunachal Pradesh and Ledo, Tinsukia (part of Assam). They concluded that a track could be pushed through to Burma and down the Hukawng Valley. Although the proposal was dropped, the British prospected the Patkai Range for a road from Assam into northern Burma. British engineers had surveyed the route for a road for the first 130 kilometres (80 miles). After the British had been pushed back out of most of Burma by the Japanese, building this road became a priority for the United States. After Rangoon was captured by the Japanese and before the Ledo Road was finished, the majority of supplies to the Chinese had to be delivered via airlift over the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountainsknown as the Hump.
Of the 1,726 kilometres (1,072 mi) long road, 1,033 kilometres (642 mi) are in Burma and 632 kilometres (393 mi) in China with the remainder in India.
After the war, the road fell into disuse. In 2010, the BBC reported, “Much of the road has been swallowed up by jungle.”
Meaning of The Stilwell Road
U.S. Army engineers began construction of the highway in December 1942 to link the railheads of Ledo (Assam, now in Arunachal Pradesh, India) and Mogaung (Burma), and Chinese troops later aided in the project.
The highway crossed into Burma through the difficult Pangsau Pass of the Patkai Range and was known as the Ledo Road until January 1945, when a connection via Myitkyinā and Bhamowas completed to the Burma Road at Mu-se. Chiang Kai-shek then renamed the highway in honour of the U.S. general Joseph W. Stilwell. It was officially abandoned by the United States in October 1945, but it remains a major internal route.
Flim about The Stilwell Road
The Stilwell Road (film) is a propaganda film produced by the American Office of War Information and the British and Indian film units in 1945 detailing the creation of the Ledo Road, also known as the Stilwell Road after the U.S. General Joseph Stilwell. The film is narrated by Ronald Reagan.
