the cargo (one way) were handed over to the Chinese. As General Chennault had predicted, supplies carried over the Ledo Road at no time approached tonnage levels of supplies airlifted monthly into China over the Hump. However, the road complemented the airlifts. The capture of the Myitkyina airstrip enabled the Air Transport Command "to fly a more southerly route without fear of Japanese fighters, thus shortening and flattening the Hump trip with astonishing results." In July 1943 the air tonnage was 5,500 rising to 8,000 in September and 13,000 in November. After the capture of Myitkyina deliveries jumped from 18,000 tons in June 1944 to 39,000 in November 1944. In July 1945, the last full month before the end of the war, 71,000 tons of supplies were flown over the Hump, compared to only 6,000 tons using the Ledo Road; the airlift operation continued in operation until the end of the war, with a total tonnage of 650,000 tons compared to 147,000 for the Ledo Road. By the time supplies were flowing over the Ledo Road in large quantities, operations in other theaters had shaped the course of the war against Japan. When flying over the Hukawng Valley during the monsoon, Mountbatten asked his staff the name of the river below them. An American officer replied, "That's not a river, it's the Ledo Road." 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) 236th Combat Engineer Battalion 1875th Combat Engineer Battalion 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 an old British airfield recently recaptured 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