When Orde Wingate executed the First Chindit Campaign in February 1943, he was hoping to use guerrilla tactics learned from his career in Africa and the Middle East to improve the situation for the Allies in Burma. He called his operations “long-range penetration,” or LRP. Essentially, he split his forces into columns small enough to…
There are many critics of how both Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek and General Joseph Stilwell handled the war in China. While not excusing poor judgment or bad decisions, I believe their choices were very much constrained by the impossible situations they found themselves in. Stilwell was responsible to General Marshall and President Roosevelt as U.S. Theater Commander…
World War II in China hardly merits any notice in history books this day in age, save for its relegation to the footnotes of the Pacific campaign. It was not the main arena in which America fought the Japanese. However, it was in many ways the main arena for the Japanese battling the Allies. While…
On 11 November 1944, 9 P-51s from the 25th Fighter Squadron and 7 P-38s from the 449th were on a fighter sweep over Thailand when they were jumped by five Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) Nates. They caught the Mustangs low and shot down Lieutenant Henry Minco. The P-38s had a great deal of difficulty…
I recently found this photo in the national archives of a few of the 449th Fighter Squadron’s pilots outprocessing from China on 10 October 1945 to return to the United States after the end of World War II. The processing center is in Yankai, China, and the pilots are, from left to right, Lieutenant W.H.…
On 20 November 1944, eight P-38s from the 449th Fighter Squadron carried out an attack on a wooden vehicular bridge at Wan Lai Kam, Burma – 120 miles south of Lashio. The bridge was an important link in the system supplying the Japanese in Burma and southwest China. Rather than using demolition bombs, as per…
On 3 September 1945, the day after the Japanese signed the surrender papers on the USS Missouri, the 449th escorted a Ki-21 Sally to Mengzi, China for a surrender ceremony involving Japanese officials in Hanoi. Richard Maddox, an armorer, recorded the day’s events on a P-38 gun camera and narrates this film I have posted on…