FRIDAY, 21 APRIL 1944
BURMA-INDIA (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 12 B-25s and 14 P-51s hit Indaw and
Mawlu, causing several fires in supply dumps and in the general target areas;
12 B-25s bomb the camp and supply area at Kamaing. 8 B-24s bomb storage and
fuel dumps at Lashio and bomb Namtu; 13 B-24s bomb Maymyo while 5 B-25s knock
out 3 bridges in the Tangon area; and 4 P-51s knock out a bridge at Shweli.
CHINA (Fourteenth Air Force): 12 P-40s fly armed reconnaissance over roads
in Burma, strafing bridges, buildings, steamrollers, trucks, and troops in areas
around Takaw, Bhamo, Loiwing, Kutkai, Hsenwi, and Lashio; at least 3 steamrollers
and 7 trucks are destroyed.
PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA, Seventh Air Force): B-24s from Kwajalein hit Wotje. B-24s from Eniwetok, staging through Kwajalein bomb Truk. B-25s from Engebi bomb Ponape. Abemama based B-25s, using Majuro as a shuttle base, bomb Jaluit and Maloelap. HQ 7th Fighter Wing and 21st Fighter Group are activated at Fort Shafter
and Wheeler Field respectively to provide air defense of the Hawaiian
Islands. No squadrons are assigned to the group until June 15, 1944. The 531st Fighter
Squadron, Seventh Air Force moves from Bellows to Kuoloa with
P-38s.
SOUTH PACIFIC AREA (SOPAC, Thirteenth Air Force): HQ 307th Bombardment Group
is ordered to move from New Georgia and Guadalcanal Islands to the Admiralty
Islands, where it will become part of the Thirteenth Air Task Force, serving
operationally under the Fifth Air Force. In spite of heavy weather in the Bismarck
Archipelago, 24 B-25s blast Matupi supply area and 11
P-39s, closed out of Rabaul due to bad weather, bomb Tinputs Harbor instead.
USN: Avengers from VT-305 take off on a bombing mission against Rabaul, but the primary and secondary targets are obscured by bad weather and the strike is aborted. Returning lost is TBM-1C Avenger 25138 pilot Ensign Walter F. Milburn, Jr. (MIA).
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA (SWPA, Fifth Air Force): 21 B-24s bomb airstrips on Noemfoor. About 320 B-24s, B-25s, and A-20s hit numerous
targets in the Tadji, Wewak and Madang area.
USN - Task Force 58 (TF-58) under the command of Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher with a force of five heavy carriers and seven light carriers
organized in three groups and launch carrier aircraft to strike airfields around Hollandia, Wakde and Sawar as the assault convoy approaches Hollandia and Aitape on the north coast of New Guinea.
