India China Division, Air Transport Command

The India-China Division (ICD) is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the Air Transport Command, stationed at Dum Dum Airport (Cazes Air Base) Calcutta, British India. It was inactivated in 1946. The organization was formed as the India-China Wing, ATC (ICWATC) from a consolidation of equipment and personnel of former units of the disbanded India-China Ferry Command in December 1942, which had been established in July 1942 by the Tenth Air Force to transport materiel to China over the Himalaya Mountains ("The Hump").

Contents

• Lineage
• Assignments
• Components
• References

ICWATC was one of nine overseas transport wings of ATC's Air Transportation Division, reporting directly to Division headquarters and not subject to control by theater commanders. It was also one of the few ATC wings to have its own assigned aircraft under the direct command of the wing commander. In July 1944 ATC reorganized world-wide and the nine wings became divisions. ICWATC became the India-China Division, with its Eastern and Western Sectors redesignated the Assam and India Wings respectively. Its mission was the air transport of supplies, personnel, equipment and aircraft within India and China during World War II.

Between 1 December 1942 and 1 December 1943 its flying components were transport groups and squadrons. After that ATC discarded the standard TO&E group/squadron structure for its units and adopted a more flexible "exact manning" system, identifying its units by their station number designation until August 1944, when it converted to the service-wide Army Air Force Base Unit system of designating non-combat units.

The organization began with two stations (Dinjan and Chabua) and three others under construction, operating less than 60 aircraft. By August 1945 ICD had expanded to more than 60 Base Units, 640 aircraft, and 34,000 personnel. On 29 January 1944 the ICWATC became the first non-combat organization to be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, at the personal direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for its efforts flying the Hump.