Back Door To Japan (1944)

[Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Yes, that's swing music. Boogie woogie. Ferry pilots flying the hump from India to China now ride a direction beam of swing music. The crewmen used to get headaches listening to the monotonous bit dah of the old dot and dash direction signal. But no matter how many trips they make on this new swing shift, they still can't handle the terrific weight of supplies needed to open up a second front in Asia. A second front to shorten our war against Japan, just as we shortened our war against Germany with several fronts in Europe. There is a double road to Tokyo, too. MacArthur and Nimttz, fighting from the Pacific Islands and up through the Philippines, [Music] are headed toward the front door of Japan. But they must have land bases and super bomber support from the continent of Asia, the backdoor to Japan. [Music] the high octane gas and heavy bombs for the super ports, the electronic equipment and plane parts for Chanel's air force in China, and the heavy trucks and guns for Stillwell's land army in Asia. The great weight of supplies for this backdoor support needs an overland route from the big Allied supply port at Kolkata, India. This overland route to Tokyo must run from Kolkata up to Leido across a new Leo road. Then by way of the old Burma road to China and the coast facing Japan. Here, MacArthur and Nimtts can be waiting to launch the double-pronged all-out drive. And that's why fourstar General Uncle Joe Stillwell is today battling somewhere in Burma. Battling to build a backdoor road, the Leo road, to prepare the way for a fullscale second front against Japan. Stillwell was thrown out once and now he's back fighting on a shoestring of equipment, capturing the ground as he goes, bulldozing a supply line behind him. He's broadening the fighting trails into a two-lane all-weather highway for the trucks and tires, big guns and tanks you're now building in America. You're making them in factories 10,000 mi away to travel up this road toward Japan. Let's go back to the spring of 44. The road was ready except for a 150 mi stretch through the key [ __ ] airfield of Mitchino. Mitchino as tough to pronounce and spell as it was to capture. Allied forces raced toward the 150 m [ __ ] roadblock around Mitchinov. From the north, American equipped and trained Chinese troops pushed down toward the city of Mitchino. A mile from the airfield, a force of British Chindits landed behind the [ __ ] lines by our air transports, slogged up to hit the Japs. [Music] But the boys with the biggest job were Merrill's marauders. Hardf fighting American kids filtering through the insectfilled jungle mountains to kill the Japs right on the target Mitchino airfield. These were the daredevil volunteers, the veterans of the bloody battles for Guadal Canal, New Guinea, and New Georgia. For 750 m they marched this way. [Music] The going was slow, heartbreaking. Mules slipped on the mountain trails. [Music] Then marauders had to carry the precious supplies on their own backs. But come back or bullets, the Japs had to be driven out of Mitchenol before the monsoons came. That was the order. and mules or slippery mountains couldn't stop Merryill's men. The brave in heart, the dead end kids from almost every state in the Union. They were on the road pointing towards home, but the road led first through Mitchino airfield and the streets of Tokyo. Overhead, [Applause] [Music] the few P40s and P-51s worked overtime, softening up the zaps, guarding the approaches to the airfield, bombing and strafing enemy strong points. The marauders couldn't break down. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Flying artillery made in airplane plants, radio directed to take the place of big guns to lay down a barrage only a couple of hundred yards ahead of our front lines. [Music] [Music] Behind the bomb blasts, the marauders inched onto the airfield. The sniper fire never let up. It was easy to get a purple heart out here. Finally, one morning, the last of the Japs on the blood soaked field were planted in victory gardens. The marauders could call the field their own. The race with the monsoon was half won. The afternoon of the same day, airborne reinforcements arrived. Somewhere at home, American workers sweated out this timetable, and they made it. [Music] Gliders belly flopped down with pint-sized tractors to level the bomb pitted field for the heavy- loaded C-47s. Ammunition and Krations were brought in, the bare essentials for this outpost fight to a second front. And another cargo was brought in, a native ox carts to go back to base hospitals on the C-47s. The wounded from the fight still raging for the city of Mitino a mile away. [Music] There was not enough time to camouflage the aid station. The valiant surgeons with the Burmese forces had to do their emergency life saving under the open sky. Exposed to every [ __ ] surprise attack hitting the field. Chinits, the Tomies, the Yanks, the Aussies, and the Chinese. Stillwell's United Nations Army hit back. [Music] But some of the transports waiting to take back the wounded were destroyed by the strong Jaff Air Force. [Music] Some of the wounded became the dead. The living hung on in the face of every hardship, existing on krations, cut off from the world for months on a forgotten front until finally after a 100 days of fighting, all of Mitchino was taken. [Music] But then the other enemy hit. The dreaded monsoon. The black southwest wind that makes the Burmese summer an endless torrential rainstorm. Precious tents, trucks, gasoline swept away by the roaring flood. [Music] Here are tires, machinery, ammunition that must be replaced. All that's lost must be redelivered in quantities to match the sweep of the monsoon. The might of the southwest wind. But until the monsoon was over, new supplies couldn't get through. Even the hardpacked Mitchino airfield was a swamp of heavy black mud. [Music] Some of the marauders were being evacuated to a rest area in India. They were battle fatigued, riddled with malaria, typhus, and [ __ ] bullets. exhausted by three and a half months of fighting the two enemies, the Japs and the Monsoon. But though they carried out three campaigns, five major battles, and 32 minor engagements to give our war industry another road to Japan, there was to be no escape for them. The C-47 couldn't get off the monsoonstricken field. It cracked up. Now, let's get up to date. The summer of 44 and the monsoon are over. Burma and Mitchino airfield are dry again. Here it is. Mitchino airfield won by the marauders and protected once by only a few of our fighter planes. Today, our warb birds are landing here in swarms. And this is just the beginning. [Music] The Leo road is pushed through at last. An unbroken overland route to the back door of Japan. Uncle Joe Stillwell, suffering shoestring, is ready to be traded in for a full-size supply line from your assembly lines at home. This is a brave new road to victory. Over it can travel all you may supply a fullscale second front in Asia. [Music]