WEDNESDAY, 1 MARCH 1944
ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): XI Strategic Air Force (Provisional)
is activated at Shemya. It includes all units of the XI Bomber Command and
XI Fighter Command stationed at Near Island, and is only a tactical operating agency
without administrative functions.
BURMA-INDIA (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 8 P-40s score 3 hits on a bridge at
Namkwin; four others hit the Myitkyina Airfield dispersal area; 56 A-36s and
P-51s attack stores and personnel areas at Sawnghka. 93d Fighter Squadron,
81st Fighter Group, arrives at Karachi from Italy; they will be equipped
with P-47Ds and enter combat on 14 Aug. Moves in India during March: 90th
Fighter Squadron, 80th Fighter Group, from Jorhat to Moran with P-40s; 118th
Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, AAF, India-Burma Sector (attached to Tenth
Air Force), based at Gushkara sends detachments to Chakulia and Kharagpur with P-51s (first mission is 28 Mar).
CHINA (Fourteenth Air Force): 14 B-25s and 16 P-40s pound a military zone in
the NE part of Nanchang.
PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA, Seventh Air Force): A-24s and P-40s from Makin hit Jaluit and Mille while B-25s pound Maloelap. During March 1944, 531st Fighter Squadron, Seventh Air Force moves from Makin to Bellows Field with A-24s.
SOUTH PACIFIC AREA (SOPAC, Thirteenth Air Force): 10 B-24s from the 5th BG, 23rd BS and 11 B-24s from 5th BG, 31st BS bomb Kahili Airfield, damaged by anti-aircraft fire, B-24D "Snow Job" 42-41230 force landed; P-38s hit Ballale and Buka; P-39s bomb and strafe Monoitu
Mission. Lost on a training mission is B-24D 42-40877 pilot 2nd Lt. George A. Singletary (MIA).
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA (SW100+ B-24s, B-25s, A-20s,
and fighter aircraft, along with Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) about 30 B-24s and B-25s hit Los Negros and Lorengau. Other B-24s and B-25s
drop supplies
to Allied pound forces on Los Negros. Aircraft,
pound Hansa Bay, Awar Point, an airfield
in the Wewak area, and enemy
installations and positions at Madang, Alexishafen, and Saiba. 82nd TRS Airacobras strafe barges off Madang, lost is P-39Q pilot Graham (KIA).
Four B-17 armed transports took off from Finschafen Airfield one of including B-17F "'G.I.' Jr" 41-24420, B-17E 41-2662, B-17F "Harry the Horse" 41-24548 and another B-17 on a mission to make supply runs to drop weapons, ammunition, barbed wire and blood plasma to the U.S. Army 1st Calvary Division soldiers that had just landed on Los Negros Island and then strafed enemy positions at Momote Airfield.
Detachment
of
26th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 6th Photographic Reconnaissance
Group, ceases operating from Port Moresby and returns to Finschhafen with
F-5s. Moves in New Guinea during Mar: HQ 309th Bombardment Wing from Lae to Saidor; 17th Reconnaissance Squadron (Bombardment), 71st Reconnaissance
Group, from Dobodura to Finschhafen with B-25s; 65th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy),
43d Bombardment Group (Heavy), from Dobodura to Nadzab with B-24s.
