Air supply keeps the Arakan administrative box fighting

Slim's excerpt moves from predicting a Japanese flanking attack to the concrete preparations needed if 7th Indian Division were cut off. Fourteenth Army, Third Tactical Air Force, and Troop Carrier Command prepacked a division's necessities, reinforced airfield units with Indian pioneers, allocated transport, and recruited volunteer crews to push the loads out. When Japanese troops infiltrated around the division and threatened the administrative box, Slim could switch it to air supply with the order to go. The case of rum placed on every aircraft is comic, but it illustrates how detailed the load planning had become. Detailed preparation made air supply an operational weapon ready before encirclement.