What happens
The Pacific Story presents the account of China's air transport, the lifeline that carried supplies over the Himalayas, the hump, into a China cut off by war. The episode traces the China National Aviation Corporation from its founding in the early 1930s, when Chinese and American partners joined to run airline routes across the country. It follows Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek as he uses air travel to visit distant provinces and bind China together as one nation. It then describes the airline's retreats before Japanese advances, its evacuations from Shanghai and Hong Kong, and the crews who kept flying through darkness and bad weather. The broadcast was originally aired on 1944-05-28 on the NBC network.
Burma, the Himalayas, China and Hong Kong, 1929 to 1942
Characters: Captain Yancey, Captain Moon Chin, Major James Doodle, General Chiang Kai-shek, Madam Chiang, Captain Hal Sweet, Mr. Pickens
Listen for: Captain Moon Chin's evacuation of 72 passengers from Mishan, and Captain Yancey's preparations before taking off over the hump
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.