While in Chabua, India in 1945, I volunteered for a special mission that entailed transferring the Chinese 5^th Army lock, stock, and barrel from Chengtu to Luichou, which was near the Japanese front.  Before going on the mission we were told at a briefing that if we had any engine trouble and the plane was going down, we were to leave by an exit that could only be reached by dropping down under the cockpit into the bowels of the C46, chopping a hole on the side of the plane, reaching outside to turn a handle that would release an exit hatch door.  It was an area in which we stored things.  It seemed a heartless way to do things, leaving a plane with thirty or forty fully equipped Chinese soldiers but, or advisor assured us, it was the only way we could save ourselves.  We could not go out the conventional way, which was the large exit door, and only door, at the rear of the plane because the Chinese soldiers would be sitting there with their fully loaded guns.  You could imagine the three of us trying to move to the back of the plane by all the fully-armed Chinese soldiers with our parachutes on.  Even though most of the soldiers, some of whom could not be more than thirteen or fourteen years old, were air-sick and upchucking in their helmets, I seriously doubt whether we could make the exit.  Fortunately, none of the crew had to bail out but one had to hack a hole on the side of the plane when they were having engine trouble but managed to return safely.  We transported the Chinese 5^th Army without incident.

 

Contributed by Richard “Minnie” Minichiello