Myanmar (Burma)  

Formally Burma, known as Myanmar today.

History
At the start of the war, the American and British commands were driven out of Burma back to India. The nececity to hold Burma was to allow a road to be built from India to China, to keep supplies flowing.  American aircraft flew 'The Hump' to China and engineers worked on the Burma Road, one of the world's greatest engineering projects, that was completed in early 1945, linking India to China by road. The Japanese also had ambitious engineering plans in Burma, using POW and local labor to complete their own rail Thai-Burma railroad. At the height of the war, the Japanese had 85,000 troops in Burma. By the end of the war, the majority had been killed in battle and died of disease and starvation.

Oral Histories
http://www.wwiitech.net/main/usa/campaigns/burma/

Rangoon (Yangoon)
Port city, fell to the Japanese on March 7, 1942. Anglo-Indian ground forces, supported by the 10th AF and RAF combat and cargo aircraft recaptured Rangoon in May 1945

Putao (Fort Hertz)
Located in northern Burma. Location of an airstrip and radio beacon.

Lashio
MapLat 22° 55' 60N Long 97° 45' 0E  Start of the road linking Burma to China, known as the Burma Road. Also Ledo Road and Stillwell Road.

     Lashio Airfield

Click For EnlargementJapanese wartime airfield. Wartime photo from American, Rick Javins.

 

 


Indaw
Connected by rail to Myitkina. Site of landing zones White City, Blackpool and Broadway.

Akyab Island
Akyab Island on the western coast of Burma on the Bay of Bingal, located 90 miles south from the India border. British forces under General W.L. Lloyd launched an invasion in December 1942. Meeting heavy resistance from bunker entrenched Japanese in the Mayu Hills, halting the invasion.  Lloyd was replaced by Lomax, and by February 1943 Japanese counter-attacks, and in March the full withdrawal of the British.

     Akyab Airfield

This airfield was Japanese occupied, and liberated by the Allies. Captured at the airfield were severl Japanese aircraft, including: Ki-46-II, Ida, Ki-43 Oscar x 2, Ki-48 Lily x 2, Ki-21 Sally x 2.


Kangaw
Kangaw located on the western coast of Burma, south-east of Akyab. Assaulted by amphibious landing on January 22, 1945 by British and commonwealth forces.

Mong Yu
Junction of the Ledo Road and old Burma Road, which were improved by the Americans into the completed road streaching from Ledo to China.

Heho Aerodrome

Meiktila Aerodrome

Amunhan

Myitkjina (Myitkyina) Airifield
Located 287 miles from Ledo, India. Caputred by Merrial's Marauders on May 17, 1944. Six days later, on May 23, the Japanese counterattecked unsucessfully to recapture the strip.

     Myitkjina Airfield

To the north, American-trained Chinese troops and American guerrillas under Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill, sustained mainly by airdrops, seized the airfield at Myitkyina in northern Burma in May 1944.

Units based at Myitkjina:
HQ 3rd CCG (C-47s) from Dinjan June 3, 1945 - ?
9 & 10th CCS (C-47s) from Warazup & Dinjan June 3, 1945 - ?
12th CCS, 3rd CCG (C-47s) from Ledo June 5, 1945 - ?
HQ 1st Combat Cargo Group ? - August 30, 1945 to Liuchow


Meiktila
Allied troop carrier units and an AAF air commando group carried out a daring operation far behind enemy lines in central Burma. Using gliders and C-47's, they landed some 9,000 British "Chindit" raiders under Major General Orde Wingate, 1,300 pack animals, and 254 tons of supplies and airfield construction equipment. Such long-range penetration ground forces, supplied entirely by air, struck at vital enemy communications and supply lines, keeping the Japanese forces in Burma off balance.

Mandalay
Anglo-Indian ground forces, supported by the 10th AF and RAF combat and cargo aircraft captured Mandalay in March 1945 and Rangoon in May, as they drove the remnants of the Japanese forces from Burma.

     Pegu Airfield

Wartime airfield.

Units based at Pegu
47th Dokuritsu Chutai (Ki-44) March - April 1942 to Japan



    Toungoo Airfield

Wartime airfield.

Units based at Pegu
8th Sentai (Ki-48) mid-1943



   Sungei Patani (Sungei Patani I, Sungei Patani II)

 


 

© 1997-2008 All rights reserved
Pacific Wreck Database
Pacific Wrecks Incorporated is a non-profit charity 501(c)(3)  Donate Now