24 Feb 1942: two IJAAF bombers and two fighters were claimed destroyed on the ground at Rahaeng (Tak) Airfield by AVG 1st Squadron P-40 strafing. Two Allied sources offer details, while neither Senshi Sosho nor Umemoto make any mention of any IJAAF losses on this date. Without this confirmation from IJAAF records, the accounts remain unclear though the two Allied sources agree.
Map:1
- Senshi Sosho:2
pp 599-601: Nothing applicable
- Shores, et al:3
Tuesday, 24 February [1942]
[Flying out of Mingaladon,] The Allies hit back during the late morning, when at midday 1st Squadron P-40s strafed Raheng airfield, Sqn Ldr Neale and Bill McGarry claiming one bomber destroyed on the ground there, whilst Bob Presott and Robert H Smith jointly claimed a second. Flt Ldr Burgard and Bill Bartling each claimed a fighter, also on the ground. . . .
- Ford:4
At noon, the Adam & Eves apparently swooped down on the airfield. . . . AVG records show that Neale, Mac McGarry, Bob Prescott, and Snuffy Smith shared credit for destroying two bombers on the ground that day, while Bill Bartling and George Burgard were credited with a fighter — though at Raheng, not Moulmein. . . .
- Extract from (677) Gulf of Martaba: McMaster Collection, Canada (offsite link); my ref: PROJECT\_MAPS\THAILAND Maps\COLLECTN McMASTER\677-macrepo_76844 1942 pt-enh.jpg in \02500 Tango\_Crash sites N TH for Tango\DETAIL SHEETS\J420103 Tak [J03]\J420108 Tak.pub\Sheet 4 (J420108 map.jpg) [↩]
- 戦史叢書, 南方進攻陸軍航空作戦, Vol 34
(東京: 防衛庁防衛研修所戦史室 (編集), 1970年)
Senshi Sosho, Southern Army Air Operations, vol 34
(Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsha, 1970) [↩] - Shores, et al, Bloody Shambles, Vol 2 (London: Grub Street, 1993), p 274[↩]
- Daniel Ford, Flying Tigers (New York: HarperCollins / Smithsonian Books, 2007, p 208[↩]