American Army Units Assigned To The Ledo Road
The units initially assigned to the initial section were:
- 45th Engineer General Service Regiment (An African-American Unit)
- 823rd Aviation Engineer Battalion (EAB) (An African-American Unit)
In 1943 they were joined by:
- 848th EAB (An African-American Unit)
- 849th EAB (An African-American Unit)
- 858th EAB (An African-American Unit)
- 1883rd EAB (An African-American Unit)
From the middle of April until the middle of May 1944 Company A of the 879th Airborne Engineer Battalion worked 24 hours a day on the Ledo Road, construction of their base camp and Shingbwiyang airfield, before deploying to Myitkyina to improve the facilities of old British airfield recently captured from the Japanese.
Work continued through 1944 in late December it was opened for the transport of logistics. In January 1945, four of the black EABs (along with three white battalions) continued working on the now renamed Stilwell Road, improving and widening it. Indeed, one of these African American units was assigned the task of improving the road that extended into China.
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