Pangsau Pass
Pangsau Pass or Pan Saung Pass, in altitude, lies on the crest of the Patkai Hills on the India–Myanmar border. The pass offers one of the easiest routes into Burma from the Assam plains. The pass lies on the famous Ledo Road and named after the closest village on Myanmar's territory, Pangsau, which lies 2 km east of the pass. India's undisputed easternmost point Chaukan Pass - east of Vijaynagar in the Changlang district - lies northeast of Pangsau Pass.
History
Early era
During the 13th century, it was the frequently used route by Ahoms, a Shan tribe, for their arrival and settlement in Assam in India.British raj era
The British in the late 19th century looked at the pass as a possible railway route from India to Myitkyina in north Burma through the Hukawng Valley, all of which were part of the British Empire at the time, but no railway was built. In the 19th century, British railway builders had surveyed the Pangsau Pass, which is high on the India-Burma border, on the Patkai crest, above Nampong, Arunachal Pradesh and Ledo, Tinsukia. They concluded that a track could be pushed through to Burma and down the Hukawng Valley. Although the proposal was dropped, the British prospected the Patkai Range for a road from Assam into northern Burma. British engineers had surveyed the route for a road for the first.During World War II the pass became famous because of the Stilwell Road connecting British India to Nationalist Chinese forces fighting the Japanese in China. The pass was the large initial obstacle encountered by United States General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell's forces in their effort to build a land route to supplement The Hump air route.
The Stilwell Road began at Ledo, Assam, the railhead, and passed through Tirap Gaon, Lekhapani, Tipong, Jagun, Jairampur, and Nampong before switchbacking steeply upwards through densely forested hills to the pass, away. The distance from Ledo to Pangsau Pass is. Because of the fierce gradients and the mud, which made getting up to the pass difficult, it was nicknamed "Hell Pass" during the war.