August 26, 1942
Today in World War II Pacific History
Day by day chronology

WEDNESDAY, 26 AUGUST 1942

ALASKA (11th AF): A photo mission over Atka is aborted due to bad weather.

CBI (CATF): B-25s which have moved temporarily from Central China to Yunnani, bomb Lashio, an important rail center, highway junction and Lashio Airfield; covering P-40s strafe numerous targets of opportunity and shoot down at least 2 Japanese fighters.

SWPA (5th AF): At 4:00am, eight B-17s from the 19th BG, 93rd BS took off from Mareeba Airfield on a bombing mission aganinst a Japanese convoy off Milne Bay. Weather inbound to the target was horrible with a ceiling of only 2,000' or less. Between 6:30am to 7:45am, the formation bombed from roughly 1,500' and experienced accurate anti-aircraft fire from the ships, damaging several of the bombers. Over the target, lost is B-17F 41-24354 pilot Captain Clyde H. Webb Jr. (MIA). Returning, B-17E "The Daylight Ltd" 41-2621 crash lands at Mareeba Airfield.

P-40s, B-25s and B-26s plus RAAF Hudsons, pound Japanese forces in Milne Bay; a large transport is damaged and most of the supplies on the beachheads east of Rabi are destroyed.

P-400 Airacobras strafe Buna Airfield and caught Japanese fighters while taking off and destroyed (shot down) six A6M3 including 3 from 2nd Kōkūtai (2nd Air Group) and 3 from Tainan Kōkūtai (Tainan Air Group), killing 3 pilots from 2nd Kōkūtai including PO/1 Kiichi Iwase, PO/3 Daïzô Ihara and PO/3 Kiyochi Nakano. Lost is P-400 Airacobra BW112.

RAAF: Ditched due to bad weather is P-40E Kittyhawk A29-110.

IJA: 18th Division, 35th Infantry Brigade (detached) lands on Guadalcanal.

IJN: Eight D3A2 Val bombed Rabi (Milne Bay) escorted by six A6M3 Zeros from the Tainan Kokutai (Tainan Air Group).