The Flying Tigers' raid on Chiang Mai

[CMHomeboy78]

The history of the Flying Tigers can be read in a number of well researched books; notably: Flying Tigers. Claire Chennault and his American Volunteers 1941-1942. By Daniel Ford [smithsonian 2007]. For an introduction to the subject, an informative summary can be found on Wikipedia, as well as a biographical sketch of Claire Chennault under a separate entry.

The air raid on Chiang Mai was - not to mince words - a revenge strike conceived and put into operation by Claire Chennault, the charismatic and flamboyant founder and leader of the Flying Tigers. Officially designated as the American Volunteer Group [AVG], they were soon given the nom de guerre "Flying Tigers" by the Nationalist Chinese led by Chiang Kai Shek under whom they served; and who were fighting the Japanese in an uneasy alliance with Mao Tse Tung's Red Army.

The attack on Chiang Mai began at daybreak on March 24th 1942. Flying out of Kunming in ten Tomahawk P-40's they overnighted and refueled at the RAF base at Namsang in Burma, one of the last still tenuously held by the British. A final refueling stop was made at a jungle airstrip near the Thai border.

The squadron commander was Robert Neale, the Flying Tigers' top gun with 15.5 kills, but Charles Bond led the attack because he had previously made a recon flight over the target area and was - to a certain extent - familiar with the lay of the land. In a speech at the Chiang Mai Foreign Cemetery during the AVG Memorial dedication in 2003, Bond remembered that pre-dawn morning in March when smoke haze covered the valley: "I took a risk and nosedived 45 degrees to three thousand feet and there below, amazingly, was Doi Suthep and the Chiang Mai valley... As the haze thinned I saw the field and the outlines of the hangers. I flipped on my gun switch and another thousand feet lower I fired my guns in a short burst to check them and let the other guys know this was it... seeing a line of parked Japanese I-97 fighters... I pulled back slightly, preparing to strafe the entire row. Now it was clear we had caught them flat-footed without any warning... We made a pass firing ammunition, not bombs, onto the surprised Japanese below. I still remember the second pass, which was so low that I could see the look of shock on the faces of the Japanese soldiers as I swooped by and let fire." [Jack S. Eisner/Bond obit 2009].

Six Tomahawk P-40's of Neale's 1st squadron attacked the 64th Sentai at Chiang Mai airfield, while four P-40's of John "Scarsdale Jack" Newkirk's 2nd squadron broke formation to follow the railway line to attack the 98th Sentai Ki-21II heavy bombers at Lampang.

In the second part of this post I will use what primary sources and eyewitness accounts that I have been able to find in describing the events that took place during and after the initial assault on the Japanese in Chiang Mai, and the disaster that occured in Lamphun on the way back from the aborted raid on the airfield at Lampang.

To be continued...

[Loaded]

I remember reading about a 'British' attach on the railway station that led to many civilian deaths. Possibly my memory or the report I read are inaccurate. Does anyone else know about this British raid.

PS

love these posts.

[CMHomeboy78]

I remember reading about a 'British' attach on the railway station that led to many civilian deaths. Possibly my memory or the report I read are inaccurate. Does anyone else know about this British raid.

PS

love these posts.

Thanks Loaded...

I'm trying to get information on the railway station raid, but so far without much success.

I don't know whether the RAF were involved or not. At this point I don't even know the date it took place, other than that it must have been after the March 24th 1942 airfield raid, because that was the first air strike on Chiang Mai.

Tomorrow morning I will post the second, and concluding part of this topic insofar as it relates to the airfield attack. If I can come up with some credible sources of information about the raid on the station I will post it as a separate topic. I only know that 300+ people were killed - presumably Japanese soldiers and Thai civilians. Also that the military goods trains were running again within a few days.

I appreciate you bringing up this point because it may lead to some references to information of interest.

[hml367]

Lots of information here: http://lanna-ww2.com/

[jonwilly]

My friend Roy, had a long talk over a glass or two in the Gymkhana Club with 'Tex' (I think ) following the visit by the survivors to the Foreign Cemetery a few years ago.

I can contact him and was down his house today, however he is not in the best of health at 94-95 and I would not like to disturb him without a reason.

If there is a serious question I will go see him after speaking via the net.

john

[CMHomeboy78]

My friend Roy, had a long talk over a glass or two in the Gymkhana Club with 'Tex' (I think ) following the visit by the survivors to the Foreign Cemetery a few years ago.

I can contact him and was down his house today, however he is not in the best of health at 94-95 and I would not like to disturb him without a reason.

If there is a serious question I will go see him after speaking via the net.

john

Thanks for the input.

I'll get back to you about this shortly.

[cloudhopper]

I remember reading about a 'British' attach on the railway station that led to many civilian deaths. Possibly my memory or the report I read are inaccurate. Does anyone else know about this British raid.

PS

love these posts.

Apparently it was part of the same Flying Tigers raid according to this wikipedia snip -

On 24 March 1942, the aircraft took off in darkness from Nam Sang and by 06:30 all were en route to Chiang Mai. Newkirk's part of the mission was to lead his flight past Chiang Mai to Lampang and, if no targets could be found there, return to help with the main raid on Chiang Mai. Arriving ahead of the main force over Chiain Mai, Newkirk's flight of four aircraft strafed the main railway depot in passing and then continued towards Lampang, approximately 45 miles (72 km) to the southeast.^[1]

Lamphun crash site

←Burma Thailand→

Newkirk's aircraft crashed in a ball of flame and he was killed instantly close to Lamphun. It was believed at the time that Newkirk's aircraft was hit by ground fire.^[1][29][5] Later investigations, including discussions with eyewitnesses, raised the possibility that Newkirk may have inadvertently hit a tree.^[1] His body was thrown clear of the wreckage and landed in a paddy field. He was buried locally by the Japanese.^[1][30]

[Loaded]

My friend Roy, had a long talk over a glass or two in the Gymkhana Club with 'Tex' (I think ) following the visit by the survivors to the Foreign Cemetery a few years ago.

I can contact him and was down his house today, however he is not in the best of health at 94-95 and I would not like to disturb him without a reason.

If there is a serious question I will go see him after speaking via the net.

john

Roy Hudson?

[islandee]

You have taken on the worthy task of presenting a condensed history of the Flying Tigers' attack on Chiang Mai. The problem with a condensation, of course, is what detail to keep, what to compress, and what simply to discard.

I also am working on a history of WWII here in northwest Thailand, but it's not to be condensed (and it's slow going). In that process, I have come to have the greatest of confidence in Dan Ford's presentation in his book, Flying Tigers, which you note; and I reference him below when applicable.

You note that the name "Flying Tigers" was given by the Nationalist Chinese. Ford closes a review of the name's source with "Over the years, journalists and historians have tried to find a source for the name in China, but its derivation is less exotic: the Tigers were christened by a well-paid suit in Washington". He was referring to the so-called "Washington Squadron", the backoffice support in Washington DC (Ford: p 107).

You write: ". . . Flying out of Kunming . . . they overnighted and refueled at Namsang in Burma . . . A final refueling stop was made at a jungle airstrip near the Thai border". It was a bit more complicated than that. After departing Kunming, they touched down at Loiwing where a CAMCO factory was located; unfortunately services there were a bit helter-skelter and the fighters were delayed 24 hours, to finally take off for Namsang where they also overnighted (Ford, pp 241-243).

There were actually two separate squadrons in the attack on Chiang Mai and, in the early morning departure from Namsang, the first group in the air, led by Jack Newkirk, didn't wait for the second group, but headed straight for Chiang Mai. Having left Namsang first, Newkirk's group arrived in Chiang Mai first and unaccountably strafed the rail station. Unaccountably because the group's target was Lampang, not Chiang Mai. Plus the strafing of the rail station alerted the airfield that enemy fighters were in the area. The arrival just a few minutes later of the second group of Flying Tigers, whose designated target was in fact the Chiang Mai airstrip, had therefore been deprived of the "element of surprise" (see Ford, p 243).

So while you accurately quote Bond "it was clear we had caught them flat-footed without any warning", that wasn't actually the case. I've talked with a friend of a friend who participated in the defense of the airstrip that morning: that friend of a friend, a member of the Royal Thai Army, was in charge of an antiaircraft battery at midfield and he was in position when Bond, et al, attacked, and he claims to have put a round into one of the strafing aircraft (but not McGarry's, of course, which was at altitude, flying cover).

I'm not sure what I-97 refers to with regard to IJAAF aircraft at the field: yes, the 64th Sentai was there, led by the legendary Kato, about whom movies were later made. The unit was flying Ki-43s, or Hayabusas; aka, the "Army Zero". Only three were write-offs as a result of the attack; those plus one "werewolf" Hurricane which had been captured in the Dutch East Indies (Ford, p 246).

Regarding how Newkirk's squadron "broke formation to follow the railway line [south]", he didn't break formation: he never joined with the other squadron in its attack on the airfield --- which was not his assignment; but he did head south, after strafing the rail station, following the railroad track towards his assigned target (Ford, p 243).

To this point in your presentation, I have only specifically researched in detail one subject you mention, the location of Loiwing --- a complicated and misunderstood topic. See discussion on Dan Ford's website, Loiwing and on my site, Locating Loiwing.

[CMHomeboy78]

My friend Roy, had a long talk over a glass or two in the Gymkhana Club with 'Tex' (I think ) following the visit by the survivors to the Foreign Cemetery a few years ago.

I can contact him and was down his house today, however he is not in the best of health at 94-95 and I would not like to disturb him without a reason.

If there is a serious question I will go see him after speaking via the net.

john

Thanks for the input.

I'll get back to you about this shortly.

I wonder if the "Tex" you refer to is the Tex Hill of the Flying Tigers?

In May 1942 at what has come to be known as the Battle of Salween Gorge, eight Tomahawk P-40's led by Tex Hill stopped the advance into China of the Japanese 56th Red Dragon Division. After four days of almost continual dive bombing and strafing, the armoured column - or what was left of it - retreated with losses estimated at 4500 men.

If it is indeed Tex Hill here in Chiang Mai, it would validate MacArthur's famous quote: "Old soldiers never die - they just fade away."

[CMHomeboy78]

You have taken on the worthy task of presenting a condensed history of the Flying Tigers' attack on Chiang Mai. The problem with a condensation, of course, is what detail to keep, what to compress, and what simply to discard.

I also am working on a history of WWII here in northwest Thailand, but it's not to be condensed (and it's slow going). In that process, I have come to have the greatest of confidence in Dan Ford's presentation in his book, Flying Tigers, which you note; and I reference him below when applicable.

You note that the name "Flying Tigers" was given by the Nationalist Chinese. Ford closes a review of the name's source with "Over the years, journalists and historians have tried to find a source for the name in China, but its derivation is less exotic: the Tigers were christened by a well-paid suit in Washington". He was referring to the so-called "Washington Squadron", the backoffice support in Washington DC (Ford: p 107).

You write: ". . . Flying out of Kunming . . . they overnighted and refueled at Namsang in Burma . . . A final refueling stop was made at a jungle airstrip near the Thai border". It was a bit more complicated than that. After departing Kunming, they touched down at Loiwing where a CAMCO factory was located; unfortunately services there were a bit helter-skelter and the fighters were delayed 24 hours, to finally take off for Namsang where they also overnighted (Ford, pp 241-243).

There were actually two separate squadrons in the attack on Chiang Mai and, in the early morning departure from Namsang, the first group in the air, led by Jack Newkirk, didn't wait for the second group, but headed straight for Chiang Mai. Having left Namsang first, Newkirk's group arrived in Chiang Mai first and unaccountably strafed the rail station. Unaccountably because the group's target was Lampang, not Chiang Mai. Plus the strafing of the rail station alerted the airfield that enemy fighters were in the area. The arrival just a few minutes later of the second group of Flying Tigers, whose designated target was in fact the Chiang Mai airstrip, had therefore been deprived of the "element of surprise" (see Ford, p 243).

So while you accurately quote Bond "it was clear we had caught them flat-footed without any warning", that wasn't actually the case. I've talked with a friend of a friend who participated in the defense of the airstrip that morning: that friend of a friend, a member of the Royal Thai Army, was in charge of an antiaircraft battery at midfield and he was in position when Bond, et al, attacked, and he claims to have put a round into one of the strafing aircraft (but not McGarry's, of course, which was at altitude, flying cover).

I'm not sure what I-97 refers to with regard to IJAAF aircraft at the field: yes, the 64th Sentai was there, led by the legendary Kato, about whom movies were later made. The unit was flying Ki-43s, or Hayabusas; aka, the "Army Zero". Only three were write-offs as a result of the attack; those plus one "werewolf" Hurricane which had been captured in the Dutch East Indies (Ford, p 246).

Regarding how Newkirk's squadron "broke formation to follow the railway line [south]", he didn't break formation: he never joined with the other squadron in its attack on the airfield --- which was not his assignment; but he did head south, after strafing the rail station, following the railroad track towards his assigned target (Ford, p 243).

To this point in your presentation, I have only specifically researched in detail one subject you mention, the location of Loiwing --- a complicated and misunderstood topic. See discussion on Dan Ford's website, Loiwing and on my site, Locating Loiwing.

Thanks for pointing out some corrections based on your sources. Trying to make sense out of conflicting stories - often by eyewitnesses - is what makes history writing so interesting, and at times frustrating.

In my final part of this topic, which I hope to post tomorrow, I hope you will find time to comment.

[Tywais]

Some more info here - Aces High

This pdf article is more about what occurred in Lampang with some references to Chiang Mai but still interesting. Lampang during WWII.pdf

[CMHomeboy78]

Some more info here - Aces High

This pdf article is more about what occurred in Lampang with some references to Chiang Mai but still interesting. Lampang during WWII.pdf

The Lampang article was new to me and I appreciate you mentioning it.

The Aces High was one of the sources that I used for the second part of the topic. There is a lot of good - and presumably accurate - information in it.

[islandee]

The attack on the Chiang Mai rail station.

From a Wisarut Bholsithi post on 2bangkok blog: WWII bombardment of Thai railways: post 57, 30-10-08, 02:40 PM:

21 Dec 1943: 29-14th AF B-24 bombers bombed Chiang Mai station at 1500 - nearly wiping out station yard. Station building and cargo depots were damaged beyond repair - 300 people were killed.

From the USAAF Chrono:

29 B-24's pound the railroad yards at Chiang Mai; the warehouse area along the W side of the yards suffers very heavy damage.

From Edward Young, Aerial Nationalism, p 201:

"On 21 December, twenty-nine B-24s flew an unescorted daylight raid to the marshaling yards at Chiang Mai. Neither the Japanese nor the Thais appeared to have any warning of the attack, as there was no antiaircraft fire and no interceptions."

From Boonserm Satrabhaya, Chiang Mai and its Aerial History (translated):

At 1500 hrs on 21 December 1943, nine Liberators of the American Air Force from Kunming, China bombed the railway, buildings, warehouses, a huge rice barn, houses, and Japanese weapon stores in Chiang Mai. 300 people, Japanese soldiers and railway employees died and others were injured. Thai and Japanese anti-aircraft defenses were not effective because of their high altitude. This was the most serious bombing of Chiang Mai. The nine aircraft continued south after the attack

The bomb that exploded farthest from the target --- this in the days long before laser-guided armament --- fell on the grounds of a rice mill on the east side of Tung Hotel Road, opposite the Water Works I office, well north of the rail station. The crater was visible as late as 2009 when I went there with Boonserm Satrabhaya, a local photographer and historian emeritus. I think the crater has since fallen victim to local development.

There is an unfortunate irony to the attack on the Chiang Mai rail station. It probably resulted from a misinterpretation by Allied Intel, based on an Imperial Japanese Army failed attempt to construct a road from Chiang Mai to Toungoo in Burma; this to support its attempt to invade India via Imphal and Kohima. It's a torturous, detailed, convoluted scenario to retrace, involving IJA troops heading not towards Burma, but rather to Lampang; It's easier to explain in my recounting here: Misinterpretation.

Several years ago, wandering around the area across the road from the Gymkhana Club, in the wat next to Dang's Bakery (and I'm surprised to see that my trusty Nancy Chandlers' map doesn't name it), my wife (my trustworthy translator) and I met an ancient fellow who remembered the attack, but with nothing new to add; except that some years later, and not so long ago, an unexploded bomb, a legacy of the attack on the rail station, had been unearthed. Dealing properly with that resulted in a temporary evacuation of a fair portion of the town. It was removed, uneventfully. I've yet to research that. That might be something that Roy could shed some light on.

With regard to participation by the RAF, at this point, I can't respond. The use of B-24s implies the USAAF 10AF, based in India, which had both USAAF and RAF (and various Commonwealth) units under its command.

I have more, but this is what comes to mind. As I implied in my previous comment, I will eventually present all this on my website Japan in Northwest Thailand during WWII --- as time allows.

Edited December 4, 2014 by islandee

[islandee]

That pdf on Lampang is fascinating. I wish we had something like that for Chiang Mai.

[hml367]

I think Seri Thai Movement would have lots to add to the history. I don't know if it is recorded in full anywhere.

There is a privately owned Seri Thai Museum in Phrae. Apparently there was vigorous resistance to the Japanese in that area.

The Seri Thai helped a few Allied airmen, soldiers and/or operatives elude or escape during the time Japanese military were in Thailand.

Edited December 4, 2014 by hml367

[scd]

Excellent and welcomed contributions by all. Thanks.

[philw]

Very interesting and important history.

Changing sides a bit, does anybody have any info on the Japanese casualties in N. Thailand, as they fled Burma ??

I've heard figures of 40 to 80,000 died in the North trying to escape Burma and get south.

Could this be true ??

[Mapguy]

I think Seri Thai Movement would have lots to add to the history. I don't know if it is recorded in full anywhere.

There is a privately owned Seri Thai Museum in Phrae. Apparently there was vigorous resistance to the Japanese in that area.

The Seri Thai helped a few Allied airmen, soldiers and/or operatives elude or escape during the time Japanese military were in Thailand.

Wiriyawit, Wimon, Free Thai: Personal Recollections and Official Documents, White Lotus Press, 1997 ISBN 974-8496-90-2 White Lotus Co., Ltd.; Bangkok

[hml367]

From some of my research many years ago.

group.bmp

[northernjohn]

Excellent and welcomed contributions by all. Thanks.

+1

[islandee]

Japanese war dead in Thailand. See my writeup on the war memorial at Ban Kat. By Japanese veterans' count, the total for India, Burma, and Thailand is said to be around 190,000. What the distribution might be amongst the three, I'm not sure right now. Their travails are the basis for the "Trails of Bones", "Skeleton Roads", and the like (titles translated), stories by various Japanese; and, in the West, eg, Fergal Keane's Road of Bones. The one individual in the Japanese command responsible for that carnage was Lt Gen Renya Mutaguchi. And he skated.

Edited December 4, 2014 by islandee

[Torrens54]

Looking forward to a whole lot more on this subject.

Congratulations to all contributors!

[jonwilly]

Too the best of my knowledge it was Tex Hill who was visiting CM with the remaining, still mobile, Flying Tigers, in conversation with Roy Hudson, Gymkhana Club post ceremony in Frang Cemetery.

john

Long Story best told by Roy, if his health permits.

[iainiain101]

This is an interesting Chiang Mai Second World War story

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol52no3/historical-intelligence-vignette.html

[hml367]

I, too, thought Tex Hill was among those visiting Chiang Mai for the memorial dedication. I looked in my "archive" of past research and found this, with no mention of Mr. Hill.

http://www.chiangmainews.com/indepth/details.php?id=573

[CMHomeboy78]

The Flying Tigers' raid on Chiang Mai continued...

After strafing the parked row of Japanese 0-97's, the six Tomahawk P-40's in Neale's 1st squadron bombed the hangars and supply dumps while coming under increasingly heavy anti-aircraft fire in the form of tracer bullets and exploding flak.

The P-40 flown by William "Black Mac" McGarry took a hit from ground fire and started trailing smoke. Immediately heading west - presumably to reach some British held airfield in Burma - he had to bail out near Mae Hong Son. He remained at large for twenty-eight days with the aid of villagers before being captured by Thai police. After interrogation by intelligence officers of the 64th Sentai in Chiang Mai he was sent to Bangkok and interned at the wartime detention centre on the Thammasat campus. He was helped to escape by Seri Thai operatives in early 1945 and made his way to Kunming, staying at Seri Thai safe houses along the way.

The wreckage of McGarry's Tomahawk P-40 was discovered in the mountains near Mae Hong Son in the summer of 1991 by a team led by the Royal consort, Group Capt. Veerayuth Didyasarin. It is on display at the Tango Squadrom Museum, Wing 41 in Chiang Mai.

Jack Newkirk's 2nd squadron arrived on target at Lampang airfield, but nothing was to be seen of the 98th Sentai's heavy bombers. Rreturning as they had come, following the railway, they fired on targets of opportunity until they came under anti-aircraft fire at the Ban Tha Lo railroad bridge near Lamphun. Accounts are conflicting as to what happened next, there are some reports that he was distracted by ox carts that he mistook for armoured vehicles, but that is unsubstantiated. It is generally accepted that he circled to make a strafing run on the battery, but in an attempt to get below the vertical range of the guns he came in too low. His right wingtip clipped a flame tree causing his P-40 to crash in a fireball. Villagers buried his remains in a marked grave at the edge of a rice field near Wat Phra Yuen. In 1949 he was reburied in his hometown of Scarsdale, New York.

The contention that the raid on Chiang Mai was a revenge attack and a tactical failure is based on a considered evaluation by historians of the available first-person accounts - Allied, Japanese, and also Thai, in the person of Boonserm Satrabhaya who witnessed events as a twelve year old schoolboy and recorded what he saw in a wartime journal that became the basis for a book he wrote in later life: Chiang Mai and the Aerial War [bangkok. Saitharn 2003].

The warplanes of the renowned 64th Sentai had played a key role in the assault and destruction of the British airfield and command centre at Magwe where the aircraft of the RAF and Flying Tigers were based. Chennault's remaining Tomahawk P-40's retreated to Kunming, and the RAF with their Blenheim bombers and Spitfires regrouped as best they could at Chittagong. From that day on, the Japanese fighter pilot ace Major Tateo Kato and his 64th Sentai were in Chennault's crosshairs.

Wartime propaganda aside, the air raid on Chiang Mai has to be seen as a failure, or a qualified success at best. At the time of the raid, Burma had already been effectively neutralized by the Japanese, Their Northern Thai airbases were no longer of strategic importance to the invasion because they were quickly establishing bases within Burma itself. Their system of construction work carried out by Japanese Army engineers supervising large numbers of POW's and local conscripts was very efficient. True, fifteen planes were destroyed on the ground in the Chiang Mai attack, along with an undetermined amount of ordnance, but at what cost? ... The loss of two ace pilots with their planes. John "Scarsdale Jack" Newkirk dead, and William "Black Mac" McGarry captured.

Rest in peace... along with the others who died that day fighting for their own country, Imperial Japan, with its watchword "Asia for Asians" and its East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which it was trying to impose by force of arms, a self-defeating impossibility... as they were to learn a few years later on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Edited December 5, 2014 by CMHomeboy78

[islandee]

Comments follow on your offering today. By the way, if you disagree with anything, please say so --- I'm subject to error myself. Truth is unfortunately a quicksilver thing.

Your "Japanese 0-97s": One of the problems with using "97" as an identifier for aircraft (or vehicles or armament) in the Japanese system is that it refers to the Japanese year that the particular item went into service. So there are a slew of items correctly identified as 97, including several aircraft. Ford notes (p 351): "the army's numerous "Type 97" warplanes were so designated because they went into service in 1937, the Imperial year 2597." The 64th Sentai was flying Ki-43s (the Hayabusa).

Your "increasingly heavy anti-aircraft fire in the form of tracer bullets and exploding flak". There's a spell-binding observation by an Allied pilot who served in the European Theater and later SE Asia contrasting the difference in reactions of enemy personnel being strafed. While German troops sought shelter to protect themselves, Japanese troops deliberately --- as ordered --- went into the target area so that they could get clear shots at the attacking aircraft; and they used anything at hand, pistols, rifles, MGs to fire on the aircraft (this to supplement the standard AA weaponry). In ordering their troops to expose themselves to the strafing, Japanese tacticians apparently felt the tradeoff was worthwhile. I don't know if that philosophy applied at Chiang Mai on 24 Mar 1942. (while I well remember reading that detail, I've not been able to locate it since (still looking)).

A curious detail: McGarry was above the fray, "flying top cover"; his altitude would have been a function of what he was flying cover for. It's not clear what his altitude would have been in this instance. In any case, "up there", he was probably an easier target for a standard AA battery than his cohorts at near zero altitude who were doing the strafing. It also suggests that the AA battery I mentioned previously was not firing a standard AA weapon. Wisarut confirmed that within the RTAF, the 35th Infantry battalion's "4th company" had responsibility for AA duties in northern Thailand during this period; and it was armed with water-cooled machine guns (Wisarut Bholsithi email of 1719 28 Apr 2103). This might better explain how the "friend of a friend" I mentioned before might have been in charge of an AA unit which successfully targeted strafing aircraft.

McGarry's bailout was not what might have been visualized. There were no ejection seats back then; he simply turned the P-40 upside down, released the canopy, and then released his seat belt so that he fell out of the aircraft.

Your: "He was helped to escape by Seri Thai operatives in early 1945 and made his way to Kunming, staying at Seri Thai safe houses along the way." He did make his way to Kunming, but it was more complicated than that (as described by tigergroupie in 2002, World War II, January 1999, on theflyingtiger website, now gone; he was paraphrasing Bob Bergin's description in OSS and Free Thai Operations in World War II.):

In early 1945, OSS learned that McGarry was being held somewhere in Bangkok. When Chennault learned this, he asked OSS to get him out and back to China. OSS turned the problem over to Thailand's anti-Japanese resistance movement, the Free Thai.

The Free Thai located the compound and got McGarry out. (The Thai commandant of the compound where McGarry was held, told the Japanese that McGarry had died and been cremated.) The Free Thai took McGarry by Customs Department boat down the khlongs (canals) to the Gulf of Siam. On 21 April 1945, two OSS Catalinas dispatched from Candy, Ceylon, landed in the Gulf and picked up McGarry and several others. In May, McGarry was flown back to Kunming where Chennault, received him.

While Lampang definitely was the 2nd Squadron's objective, I've not seen it stated before that the flight actually got there. But it's quite possible. I'm used to a story describing confusion between the names of Lampang and Lamphun, with the group getting only as far as Lamphun, mistakenly believing they had reached their objective.

Your "the 98th Sentai's heavy bombers". Shores (vol 2, pp 346-347) shows 98th Sentai with 35 Ki-21 heavy bombers arriving in Nakhon Sawan around 10 Mar 1942 from Sumatra.

Conversely, Shores (vol 2, p 268) shows the 31st Sentai with 25 Ki-30 light bombers arriving at "Lampong" (read Lampang) around 09 Feb 1942; from where it came is not clear.

That the 2nd Squadron didn't get to Lampang is implied by their not finding enemy bombers. Shores records 53 Ki-21s (some of which would have been from Nakhon Sawan) getting off that afternoon to attack targets in Burma, with their escorts being 11 64th Sentai fighters (which would have been from Chiang Mai) (Shores, vol 2, p 357). The implication is that the bombers located at Lampang did not have duty that day, so they would have on the ground, available for sighting by Newkirk, et al, had they actually gotten there.

Your "Their system of construction work carried out by Japanese Army engineers supervising large numbers of POW's and local conscripts was very efficient". At this stage, I don't believe there were large numbers of POWs available in Burma to be used in construction work: they did exist as a result of the fall of Singapore in mid-February, but the idea of using them "productively" didn't occur until later, as in the notorious "Death Railway" and the lesser known Kra rail link.

Your "fifteen planes were destroyed on the ground in the Chiang Mai attack". Dan Ford initially was vilified by Flying Tiger veterans for pointing out in his Flying Tigers that Japanese Army records did not support Flying Tiger claimed "victories". At the time, none of the critics realized that Ford was also pointing out that the IJAAF had made similarly unsupported claims of downed Allied aircraft. Bureaucracy has its limitations, but it also has its moments: "kills" were apparently overstated by both sides. In the "thrill of the moment", adrenaline flowing at the max, aircraft moving at 300+ mph, perspectives tend to get distorted. Ford was able to document only three Hayabusas as being written off and one werewolf Hurricane which had been captured in the Dutch East Indies (and it was supposedly Kato's pride). Subsequently, there seems to have been an evolving acknowledgement, albeit grudging, on both sides of the conflict, that Ford's counts are correct.

Your "Rest in peace... along with the others who died that day fighting for their own country, Imperial Japan, with its watchword "Asia for Asians" and its East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". Yes, and there's much to be said for reading / rereading Butler's War is a Racket, Engelbrecht and Hanighen's Merchants of Death, Seldes' Iron, Blood, and Profits, Brailsford's The War of Steel and Gold, Halberstam's The Coldest Winter, Higham's Trading with the Enemy, Martin's All Honorable Men, Cardwell's NSC 68 and the Political Economy of the Early Cold War, etc, and fully grasping what pawns we, the cannon fodder, are for transnational elite interests who guiltlessly point us towards the fragile concepts of heroism, nationalism, patriotism for their own profit (sorry, a political statement that).

And a more mundane question: does anyone know from what document the "Chapter V" pdf file came? Its review of air operations (pp 192-193) is unsettlingly misleading. I'll provide clarifications in a later post.

Edited December 5, 2014 by islandee

[Tywais]

And a more mundane question: does anyone know from what document the "Chapter V" pdf file came? Its review of air operations (pp 192-193) is unsettlingly misleading. I'll provide clarifications in a later post.

If you Google search Honbun Lampang you will see links to dspace.wul.waseda.ac.jp and the other chapters. I'm curious as to your follow up information as those pages you mention have most points cited with references to their original documents. Of course Honbun is Japanese for document so don't know if there is a bias in it.

[CMHomeboy78]

Comments follow on your offering today. By the way, if you disagree with anything, please say so --- I'm subject to error myself. Truth is unfortunately a quicksilver thing.

Best wishes for early publication and success with your book.

I will look forward to reading it, as I am sure will others who share my interest in the history of Thailand during WWII.