The Snapshots in Time Collection
American Serviceman Atop Elephant with Local Mahouts, China-Burma-India Theater, WWII
In the China-Burma-India theater, elephants were indispensable to Allied logistics, hauling supplies and equipment through jungle terrain impassable to trucks. This photograph shows an American serviceman seated atop an elephant's head while local mahouts tend to the animals in a colonial compound, a scene emblematic of the unique challenges and improvised solutions of the CBI theater during World War II. Project: 218078