Hell Is So Green: Search and Rescue over the Hump in World War II

Lt. William Diebold served in the Army’s Air Transport Command in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II and never fired a weapon in battle. Like many men who flew the eastern Himalayas, he never saw on-the-ground combat, but he fought bravely by saving lives. Flyers who crossed the Hump to keep the allied armies in China supplied with food, fuel, and weapons against Japan—preventing it from concentrating its full power in the Pacific—often flew in zero-visibility, sometimes crashing into mountains or falling prey to Japanese Zero attacks. Those pilots who survived, Bill Diebold rescued.

In Hell Is So Green, he vividly describes the heat and stink of the jungle; the vermin, lice, and leeches; the towering mountains and roaring rivers. Rich with war slang, wisecracks, and old-fashioned phrases, his story reverberates with authenticity and represents the stories of so many men that have never been told. After the author’s early death, the manuscript lay untouched in an attic for decades—until now. Here, from the shadows of that attic, comes a compelling story of courage under fire and heroism in the wilderness.