SATURDAY, 15 JANUARY 1944
(CBI) BURMA-INDIA (Tenth Air Force):
4 P-40's and a B-25 over north Burma hit a train at Pinwe.
CHINA (Fourteenth Air Force): Two B-25's on a sea sweep along the French Indochina coast bomb the Hongay power plant and sink a gunboat in a nearby cove to the
SW; a coal grading building at Campha Port is also bombed. 2 B-25's on a sweep
off the SE China coast sink a wooden vessel off Swatow and damage the lighthouse
on Nampana. Two others shoot down a Japanese bomber N of Chikhom, China.
PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA, Seventh Air Force): Nine B-25's from Tarawa flying at deck-level bomb and strafe shipping and shore installations
at Maloelap; 2 vessels are hit and the oil dump, hangars,
other buildings, and runways are damaged; one B-25 crashes at sea after being
hit by AA fire.
SOUTH PACIFIC AREA (SOPAC, Thirteenth Air Force): On Bougainville, 24 B-25's, with 60 fighters escorting, pound East Cape;
and P-39's attack barges and trucks at Chabai.
HQ 347th Fighter Group and it's 339th Fighter Squadron transfer from Guadalcanal to Stirling with P-38's. Before dawn,
six B-24s of a larger formation taking off striek Rabaul bombing airfields and other targets. A planned B-25 strike was canceled due to bad weather.
USMC: 36 Corsairs took off on a fighter sweep over Rabaul but only a dozen reach the target due to bad weather and had no contact.
IJN: At Rabaul, 80 Zeros are scrabmled but make no contact due to bad weather.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA (SWPA, Fifth Air Force): B-24's and B-25's
pound Uligan Harbor; P-40's, P-47's, and B-25's hit the Madang, Alexishafen, Erima, and Bogadjim area. Enemy positions along the south coast of New Britain
are attacked by B-25's and P-39's. 499th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), 345th
Bombardment Group (Medium), transfers from Port Moresby to Dobodura
with B-25's.
A patrol of four P-40Ns are intercepted by Ki-43 Oscars from 59th Hiko Sentai with three damaged and shot down is P-40N 42-105909 (KIA).
References
South Pacific Air War (2024) by Richard Dunn pages 522 (January 15, 1944)
