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The '''Ledo Road''' was a 400 mile dirt road through jungle and mountains designed as the major supply route to China once Rangoon was occupied by the Japanese. In addition supplies were flown to Kumin "over the hump" (that is, over the high Himalayas.)  The road, with two 4-inch oil pipelines alongside, was built in extraordinarily difficult conditions to stretch between Ledo, India, to connect with the existing 720-mile stretch of the Burma Road, which linked northern to Burma to Kunming, China.  The first convoys in January, 1945, brought supplies to China across 1100 miles in 24 days.   

The '''Ledo Road''' was a 400 mile dirt road through jungle and mountains designed as the major supply route to China once Rangoon was occupied by the Japanese. In addition supplies were flown to Kumin "over the hump" (that is, over the high Himalayas.)  The road, with two 4-inch oil pipelines alongside, was built in extraordinarily difficult conditions to stretch between Ledo, India, to connect with the existing 720-mile stretch of the Burma Road, which linked northern to Burma to Kunming, China.  The first convoys in January, 1945, brought supplies to China across 1100 miles in 24 days.   

[[Image:Cbi-Ledo-road2.jpg|thumb|350px|Ledo road near Myitkyina, Burma]]

[[Image:Cbi-Ledo-road3.jpg|thumb|350px|Ledo road near Myitkyina, Burma]]

The Ledo Road project started in October 1942, but it made little progress during 1943. Stilwell's Northern Combat Area Command offensive between October 1943 and August 1944 cleared the Japanese from northern Burma and enabled construction to go forward. The capture of Myitkyina, Burma, in August 1944, meant completion was possible.  The Ledo Road opened in late January, 1945. The combined highways were officially named the '''Stilwell Road,''' although Stilwell himself had been relieved of command in October, 1944.<ref> See [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0060746386/ref=sib_dp_bod_ex?ie=UTF8&p=S00L#reader-link Webster (2004) p 335]</ref>  

The Ledo Road project started in October 1942, but it made little progress during 1943. Stilwell's Northern Combat Area Command offensive between October 1943 and August 1944 cleared the Japanese from northern Burma and enabled construction to go forward. The capture of Myitkyina, Burma, in August 1944, meant completion was possible.  The Ledo Road opened in late January, 1945. The combined highways were officially named the '''Stilwell Road,''' although Stilwell himself had been relieved of command in October, 1944.<ref> See [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0060746386/ref=sib_dp_bod_ex?ie=UTF8&p=S00L#reader-link Webster (2004) p 335]</ref>  

The Ledo road was engineered by 17,000 Americans, half of them in all-black units, under Gen. Lewis A. Pick; the fatalities totaled 1,133 men, 625 of whom died in combat. Over 35,000 Chinese soldiers worked in the project as well.  "Pick's Pike" cost $150 million. Sixty-four truck companies--far short of the 375 planned to operate convoys--delivered 150,000 tons of heavy artillery, 25,000 trucks, and miles of gasoline pipeline to parallel the road to Kunming.

The Ledo road was engineered by 17,000 Americans, half of them in all-black units, under Gen. Lewis A. Pick; the fatalities totaled 1,133 men, 625 of whom died in combat. Over 35,000 Chinese soldiers worked in the project as well.  "Pick's Pike" cost $150 million. Sixty-four truck companies--far short of the 375 planned to operate convoys--delivered 150,000 tons of heavy artillery, 25,000 trucks, and miles of gasoline pipeline to parallel the road to Kunming.

==Combat==

==Combat==

There were many minor battles along the way; none of great size.  In the siege of Nhpum Ga, a thirteen-day ordeal in June 1944, some 800 Japanese marines attacked with mortars the 1100 Americans of the Second Battalion of "Merrill's Marauders."  Surrounded atop an exposed hill, short of water and almost everything except courage and disease, the Marauders shot up the Japanese at all ranges under appalling conditions marked by the overwhelming stench of dead mules and humans decomposing in the jungle heat.<ref> In the midst of their ordeal the Raiders received and consumed an airdrop of fried chicken. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B0009309A4/ref=sib_dp_pt# Webster (2003) pp 192-95 online]</ref>

There were many minor battles along the way; none of great size.  In the siege of Nhpum Ga, a thirteen-day ordeal in June 1944, some 800 Japanese marines attacked with mortars the 1100 Americans of the Second Battalion of "Merrill's Marauders."  Surrounded atop an exposed hill, short of water and almost everything except courage and disease, the Marauders shot up the Japanese at all ranges under appalling conditions marked by the overwhelming stench of dead mules and humans decomposing in the jungle heat.<ref> In the midst of their ordeal the Raiders received and consumed an airdrop of fried chicken. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B0009309A4/ref=sib_dp_pt# Webster (2003) pp 192-95 online]</ref>