Based on the true life exploits of a World War II pilot flying the dangerous route over the Himalayas, the book brings to light a little known facet of World War II. Flying the Hump, was the name given by American pilots to flying over the treacherous air currents of the Himalaya Mountains during World War II. It was an extremely dangerous but necessary route American pilots traveled to bring vital material to Chinese troops in China and American and other Allied forces in the Pacific. The materiel transported, critical to the Allied war effort in the early days enabled them to persist while the industrial might of the United States was retooling.