When the Japanese occupied Rangoon, China was running short of supplies.
Its east coast had already been blockaded by Japanese forces and Rangoon was its last supply route.
When Rangoon fell, supplies had to be flown by air to China over the Himalayas in the east, until a decision was reached to build a road along a route that had been surveyed by the British as early as the 1800s.
Many were sceptical about the project. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared it was 'an immense, laborious task, unlikely to be finished until the need for it has passed.'
But the Americans felt it was the only option. Some 15,000 Americans, many of them African Americans (60 per cent), and 35,000 locals began this enormous task under the supervision of General Joseph Warren 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell at the cost of $150 million.
Photograph: Chinese army engineers construct a bridge on the Ledo Road. Photograph: Courtesy, the Imperial War Museum (http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/)
Also read: India's policy flounders on Burma
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