U.S. to search for missing WW2 airmen in India

By Simon Denyer

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - In honor of the crouching, naked blonde painted on its nose, its pilot had named his bomber the "Hot as Hell".

But it was a freezing and stormy day as the American B-24 Liberator made its way across the Himalayas on Jan 25, 1944, flying what was known as "the Hump", perhaps the most dangerous route in air transport history.

It was one of nine American planes that went down that day as they tried to resupply China's besieged army in the city of Kunming, desperately trying to hold out against the invading Japanese during World War Two.

Many of the wrecks have never been found.

The Hot as Hell's crew of eight were listed as Missing in Action and later presumed dead. Its fate was a mystery the crewmen's families lived with for 60 years.

That is until Clayton Kuhles, an Arizona businessmen who spends his free time trekking through the mountains of northeastern India in search of World War Two plane wrecks, found the debris of the plane in thick jungle on December 2006.

Kuhles has found the remains of nine planes in the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh in the past five years, doggedly logging his discoveries, informing American military authorities and posting them on his website (www.miarecoveries.org).

Now, after determined lobbying from relatives of the dead airmen, the U.S. military is finally swinging into action.