Out of the 3210 C-46 Commando, heavy lift USAAF transports to roll off the Curtiss-Wright Corporation production line in St Louis, Missouri, some 700 of them were lost, declared missing or written off whilst flying the extremely dangerous Himilayan 'Hump' between Allied bases in India and the Chinese Mainland.
1659 Allied aircrew also perished or were declared missing - often without a trace.
None of them due to enemy action.
With Japanese forces blockading all Chinese ports, during the course of the War, the USAAF managed to ferry over 650,000 tons of critical fuel, ammunition, arms and medical equipment to Chang Ki Chek's National Army in their desperate battle to repel the invaders.
With twice the load carrying capacity of the C47 Skytrain and with an operational cieling hieght of 20,000 ft, the Curtis's C-46 endured some of the most extreme flying conditions on the planet to keep the Chinese Army alive.
I came across this C-46 cockpit Trim Wheel a good while ago and it's now found a new home with a US aviator who fondly recalls flying his DC-3 alongside this Curtis's workhorse early in his flying career in Alaska.
I paired the Trim Wheel with a rare Czech Republic 1/72 Valom kit which, whilst having minimal detail and some fit problems, came up pretty well after a lot of 
re-scribing and riveting plus a scratch built cockpit and cargo area, with the customer opting for the Chinese Nationalist's 'White Sun & Rays' decals from TWPUZZ.
Unlike Claire Lee Chennaults 'Flying Tigers' who adopted the 'White Sun' livery early in the war, officially it was not sanctioned for use on the C-46 until just before the Japanese surrender although US and Chinese crews were sometimes successful in bypassing protocol and jumped the gun much earlier.
150 new and surplus C-46s were later supplied to Change Ki Chek in his ongoing battles with the new and emerging Chinese Communist Army forces of Mao Zedong.