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 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 Himalayan Mountains ("The Hump").
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 worldwide 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.
History
Lineage
Constituted as the India-China Wing, Air Transport Command
Activated on 1 December 1942
Redesignated India-China Division, Air Transport Command on 1 July 1944
Inactivated on 15 February 1946
Assignments
Air Transport Command, 1 December 1942 – 1946
Components
1 December 1942 to 1 December 1943
1st Ferrying Group
3d Ferrying Squadron
6th Ferrying Squadron
13th Ferrying Squadron
Dinjan Airfield, Assam, India
22d Transport Group
77th Transport Squadron
78th Transport Squadron
88th Transport Squadron
Jorhat Airfield, Assam, India
28th Transport Group
96th Transport Squadron
97th Transport Squadron
98th Transport Squadron
Tezpur Airfield, Assam, India
29th Transport Group
13th Ferrying Squadron
99th Transport Squadron
100th Transport Squadron
301st Transport Squadron
Sookerating Airfield, Assam, India
30th Transport Group
302d Transport Squadron
303d Transport Squadron
304th Transport Squadron
Mohanbari Airfield, Assam, India
Stations
See also
China Burma India Theater
Chinese Army in India
South Atlantic air ferry route in World War II
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
The Army Almanac, Armed Forces Information School (U.S), Washington. D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1950 India-China Wing USAAF 14th Air Force Airfields in China, 1942-1946