After the Japanese blocked the Burma Road, the only way to supply the Chinese resistance and the Flying Tigers was by flying over the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains. Pilots called this route 'The Hump.' It was the first sustained long-distance, high-altitude military airlift in history. Pilots faced extreme weather, 200-mph winds, and a lack of oxygen in unpressurized cockpits. So many planes crashed along the route that it became known as the 'Aluminum Trail.' Over three years, the operation delivered 650,000 tons of supplies, but at the cost of nearly 600 aircraft and 1,600 lives.