November 12, 1944
Today in World War II Pacific History
Day by day chronology
SUNDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 1944
ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): Two B-24s fly armed reconnaissance over Onnekotan and Matsuwa.
CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): 8 B-25s knock out a railway bridge and damage 2 others near Thanh Hoa, French Indochina. In Burma, 4 B-25s bomb the town of Man Pwe while 4 attack Wanling. In China, 38 P-51s and P-40s hit Hengyang Airfield and attack river, rail, and road traffic, artillery pieces, pillboxes, and storage around Hengyang, Lingling, and Kweilin; 13 P-40s hit the Changsha area; 40 P-51s and P-38s hit various targets of opportunity at several other locations scattered throughout S China and N French Indochina; the 21st Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, Fourteenth AF, based at Kunming, sends a flight to operate from Suichwan with F-5s (other flights are operating from Kanchow and Hanchung).
INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, sixteen P-47s support ground forces in the Pinwe area and near Indaw; 24 attack supplies and communications targets in the Kawlin area while nine bomb Japanese concentrations at Indaw and Man Hkong; the town of Pegon is attacked by 11 P-47s and 20+ others and 9 B-25s hit targets of opportunity during the sweeps of the Irrawaddy River from Singu to Katha and along rail lines at several points in N Burma. 250+ transport sorties are flown to forward bases and frontline areas. HQ 2d Air Commando Group arrives at Kalaikunda, India from the US.
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Twentieth Air Force): 29 Chengtu based B-29s bomb Omura, Kyushu; 20+ others bomb the last resort target of Nanking (due to bad weather over Omura), and 20+ more hit various alternate targets and targets of opportunity.
AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): 29 B-24s from Saipan with P-38 escort bomb the airfield on Iwo Jima. 11 P-47s strafe the runway and storage area at Pagan Airfield on Pagan. During the night a B-24 on a snooper mission bombs Iwo Jima. B-24s from Angaur Airfield bomb Koror.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: B-24s bomb Alicante Airfield while on Leyte, fighter-bombers hit Linao barges on the west coast and shipping in Ormoc Bay;
B-25s bomb Daliao Airfield and Matina
Airfields.
B-24s and fighter-bombers over NE Celebes and Halmahera Islands attack shipping and Djailolo
Airfield on Halmahera Island. 50+ B-25s blast Mapia Island and Asia Island. Lost is B-25G 42-65142. Units moving to Leyte: HQ 91st Photographic
Wing (Reconnaissance) moves from Biak; HQ 345th Bombardment Group (Medium)
and the 498th and 499th Bombardment Squadrons (Medium) from Biak with
B-25s (squadrons continue to operate from Biak). The 370th Bombardment
Squadron (Heavy), 307th Bombardment Group (Heavy), ceases operating from Noemfoor with B-24s and returns to base on Wakde.
USMC: Lost is FG-1A Corsair 14026 (MIA) crashed two miles north of Four Ways (Four Corner) near Rabaul.
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