European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 23, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                I c after three Long years the land route is open by Dave Richardson yank staff correspondent with the first Convoy to China Over the Leo Burma Celebration of Oscar greens 21st birthday was the biggest in his was Only because of a Coin Green drove a jeep in the first motor Convoy in history from India to the Day the Convoy reached its destination at Kunming was also greens and although the chinese people never heard of Oscar they did know one Convoy had ended a three year blockade by the japs of a land route to the so the people put on the wildest Celebration in their eight years of and not until then did i notice the change in Oscar when i started from in greens he had muttered to me this is just another dirty damned if i dont Al ways seem to catch All through the trip he had stuck by that who likes sleeping on the ground he would or cooking his own meals or getting win burned and chapped and covered with dust i sure As hell on greens our jeep finally swung through the narrow streets of Wajswol Len Kunming at the end of the thousand mile and Oscar took in the there were thousands of wrinkled with age and some tiny a few of the wealthy in Fine clothes and an overwhelming number of poor in tattered they lined our path for scanning the Long procession of waving shooting off clap Ping and Green dropped his cockiness and he grew silent when he spoke again he was dead you he admitted you been hearing me Bitch Ever since we but now that its All Over i guess i was wrong in a in sorta glad now we made the trip be cause somehow i feel this things Gonna go Down in most of the rest of us in the Convoy went through the same transformation As Oscar those of us who realized Early the significance of what we were doing were backward about Page 6 saying afraid of being laughed sooner or later everyone began to sense something in the patient faces of the chinese people in the lavish celebrations they insisted on throwing for us in their War shattered villages in the holidays they declared at each place we passed through in the pathetically flattering signs that called us Gallant in the thumbs up greetings and grins we got from the Long lines of ill underfed chinese soldiers trudging wearily Back to the this was More than just another Long drive Over Dusty this marked the closing of one chapter in this War in the far East and the opening of thousands of Amer Indian and British soldiers had worked and died in Burma and China to make this trip the Convoy rolled out of Ledo in Assam prov Ince of India even before the japs had been completely cleared from the Saweli River Valley last link in Burma Between Ledo and the Burma three Days and 260 Miles later the vehicles pulled in to the biggest american base in and after a week the Convoy got the godhead from Dan cd of the India Burma who announced that farther Down the Road the last pockets of resistance were being mopped we got up in the darkness next dressed with chattering Drew 10inone packed our bedding and equipment in the vehicles and gathered at the push off at 0700 hours Lewis pick of a who had directed most of the Ledo Road construction and was to Lead the called the Drivers together for a Las minute he in a few minutes you will be starting out on a history making Advent you will take the first Convoy into China As representatives of the United states of Amer its up to you to get every one of these vehicles Start emas i got into jeep 32 with Green and Ray Lawless of a photographer for the signal i noticed that a chinese Driver was climbing into the cab of every truck As assistant other chinese veterans of the Burma were boarding the Sixby Sixes to serve As armed guards for the by 0730 the parking lot was filled with the noise of engines As the vehicles rolled turned into the Ledo Road and headed South through the Early morning there were motorcycles with jeeps and Gmucs and ambulances and prime the Convoy thundered stopping Only for a ration we passed american in bulldozers and Indian soldiers digging a drainage and chinese engineers building a Plank fifteen Miles from Bahamo we came upon a Macadam Highway that had been built before the and by late after noon we were pulling into a bivouac a i tent Camp had sprung up All Over Bahamo in the month and a half since its and it had been policed up when Lawless got out of the jeep to take a picture of the Convoy entering the Shell lasted he found it haunt been cleaned up quite he turning up his nose As he came Back to the what a stink Back someone forgot to Bury what was left of a Jap hit by More vehicles joined us at increasing the number in the Convoy to at Dawn the next Day we were off again in the morning bypassing a knocked out soon we plunged into the Jungles and following an ancient Spur Road that had first been used by foot travellers in the Days of Marco Polo and before the War was the main route for supplies from that afternoon the Convoy descended the Hills to the open country of the Saweli River Valley and entered which had been captured by the chinese 38th division Only nine Days before we got through the Battle scarred an officer halted the first looks youll have to Lay Over Here a few he the japs still hold Miles of the Road up some of them Are right up there in those five Miles with and they can see every move we they forced our guns from one position yesterday with their the Convoy went a few Miles past and pulled into a wooded area that had been the Jap stronghold a few Days there were cleverly concealed emplacements we could hear the Dull thud of Jap