05 Mar 1944: At Chiang Mai Airfield, which was being used primarily by the IJAAF, three Kawasaki Ki-48 Type 99 twin-engined light bombers (Alled reporting name: “Lily”)1) were destroyed on the ground by parafrag bombs dropped by eight B-25s of the USAAF 22nd and 491st (Medium) Bomb Squadrons. The squadrons flew out of Yangkai2 (Google Maps link), about 60km NNE of Kunming3 (Google Maps link to Wujiaba Airport), China, and about 800 km north of Chiang Mai (See 05 Mar 1944: B-25C for information from the Allied side.
Photo: Ki-48 Sokei (offsite link)
One Royal Thai Air Force Curtiss Hawk III on the field was also destroyed in the raid.4
While photos of the damage at the airfield resulting from the raid were described by USAAF pilot Wendell Hanson,5 they are not available at present. An aerial photo taken about a month after the 05 Mar 1944 raid shows revetments (circled) in which the Japanese twin engine bombers might have been parked:6
This oblique aerial photo of the north end of the field was taken about two months after the raid and shows the desolation resulting from repeated attacks by Allied aircraft. This photo is actually the product of a gun camera recording a strafing in progress:7
The wreckage can be assumed to have eventually found its way into a Japanese scrap metal drive.8
References:
• Umemoto, 2002, lists three identical entries:9
| 25 Mar 1944 | ||
| 8th Light Bomber Air Combat Regiment | ||
| Kawasaki Ki-48 | ||
| Unknown (none) | ||
| Chiang Mai Airfield | ||
| B-25 bombing | ||
| Burned on the ground | ||
Umemoto comment:10
3月5日には、タイのチェンマイ飛行場が8機のB25(日本側判断)に襲われ、8戦隊の双軽3機が 炎上した他、人員資材に大損害を受けた。
On 5 March [1944], Thailand’s Chiang Mai airfield was attacked by eight B25s (judged by the Japanese side), three twin light aircraft of Squadron 8 burned, and personnel materials were severely damaged. [Google translation]
| First published on Internet | ||
| Converted to WordPress by Ally Taylor | ||
| Updated, author major errors & typos corrected | ||
Last Updated on 17 December 2025
- A USAAF pilot on the raid, Wendell Hanson, misidentified the twin engine bombers as “Bettys”, ie, Mitsubishi G4Ms. (Wendell H. Hanson, “Chiang Mai, Thailand”, Jay V. Percival, “My Recollection”, and John A. Johns, “More About the Chiang Mai Raid”, all in WWII Diary: Stories by the Airmen of the 22nd Bombs Squadron of World War II, edited by David K. Hayward (Reprint, Longbeach, CA: 22nd Bomb Squadron Association, 2014), pp 199-208, 209-210, and 219-220, respectively[↩]
- N25°24.25 E103°06.77[↩]
- N24° 59.53 E102° 44.60[↩]
- Sakpinit Promthep email of 08:51 06 Feb 2021.[↩]
- Hayward, ibid.[↩]
- Parts of aerial photos 02475.jpg and 02483.jpg from Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos Collection: originals from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); University of London Digital Data from Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University; Digital Archive from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA), Thailand. Annotated with Microsoft Publisher by author.[↩]
- provided by Ted Yong via Sakpinit Promthep email of 0851 06 Feb 2021. Annotated with Microsoft Publisher by author.[↩]
- As described in ชีวิตของมาซาโอะ เชโตะ ผู้ถูกพ่อและญี่ปุ่นทอตทิ้ง เล่ม 1, แปลจาก : Seto Masao no Jinsel (ชีวิตของมาซาโอะ เชโตะ), แปลโดย : บ้ณทิต ประดิษฐานุวงษ์ [Seto, Masao, Life of Masao Seto, Book 1, p 160 [my ref: 03400 Boggett/Seto xlatn][↩]
- 梅本弘,ビルマ航空戦・上 (東京:大日本印刷株, 2002), 495 — Umemoto, Hiroshi, Air War in Burma, vol 2 (Tokyo: Dai Nippon, 2002), p 495.[↩]
- Umemoto, ibid, p 123.[↩]