TUESDAY, 5 DECEMBER 1944
ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): Six B-24s off for a strike on Kakumabetsu abort due to weather and B-25s cancel a shipping sweep.
China: 10th Air Force begins airlift of Chinese 14th Div from Burma to China. Meanwhile, the Chinese 22d Div is to prepare for similar movement.
Burna: In NCAC area, Japanese send strong TF toward Bhamo to assist withdrawal of beleaguered garrison. This force of about 3,000 starts N from Namhkam in evening. Ch 30th Div continues southward drive toward Namhkam against enemy opposition from hill positions.
CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): Seven B-24s on sweep the Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea, and Formosa Strait bomb Ft Bayard, China and Kowloon Docks in Hong Kong and damage a freighter. Six B-25s pound targets of opportunity from Liuchow to Liuchenghsien, China; 61 P-40s, P-51s, and P-38s on armed reconnaissance hit river, road, and rail traffic and other targets of opportunity at scattered points mainly in S China.
INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 31 fighter-bombers support ground forces in the Bhamo area; 25 fighter-bombers hit Hay-ti, Meza, and 3 other road bridges; 20+ fighter-bombers attack town areas, troop concentrations and storage facilities in or near Kawngwai, Kunmong, Settawagon, and Thitpoklwin; 8 attack targets of opportunity along the Shwebo-Wuntho rail line; transports complete 285 sorties carrying troops to forward bases and dropping supplies to frontline forces; 10 B-25s bomb a communications center, supplies, and personnel concentration at Mogok; on this date Tenth AF aircraft begin Operation GRUBWORM, flying the Chinese 14th and 22d Divisions from Burma to China in preparation for the Yunnan campaign to counter a probable Japanese drive toward Kunming; the 9th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Group, moves from Barrackpore to Myitkyina with B-25s and F-5s (a detachment is operating from Chittagong); the 317th Troop Carrier Squadron (Commando), 2d Air Commando Group, moves from Bikram, India to Myitkyina with C-47s.
AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): P-47s from Saipan strafe the runway of Pagan Airfield.
USMC: Lost due to an aerial collision over New Britain is FG-1A 14417 (POW).
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: B-24s strike Hate Tabako Airfield, Galela Airfield, and Djailolo Airfield while B-25s and A-20s
lightly raid Miti and Kaoe Airfields. B-25s hit Langoan while
B-24s flying in pairs hit targets of opportunity nearby and in north Borneo. Fighter-bombers
over the central Philippines area hit Japanese positions, barges, and communications
targets.
U.S. Army: On Leyte, U.S. Sixth Army begins offensive against Ormoc. In X Corps area 112th Cav is still stalemated on ridge SE of Limon. 32d Div prepares to drive down Highway 2. In seporate actions, Pfc William A. McWhorter earn the Medal of Honor, posthumously.
In XXIV Corps area, 776th Amph Tank Bn, moving N by sea beyond Balogo, lands in Tabgas area to fire on hills in front of 7th Div; continues northward by sea to reconnoiter Calingatngan region, then returns to bivouac area. 7th Div attacks with 184th Inf on left and 17th on right: 184th secures line from beach some
300 yards S of Balogo on left to heights SE of Palanas R on right; 3d Bn crosses the Palanas and scales first ridge of Hill 380. Co K, 32d Inf, plugs gap between 184th and 17th Regts. 17th Inf takes ridge W of Hill 918. 77th Div, at Tarragona beach assembly area on E coast of Leyte, begins loading supplies and equipment for landing below Ormoc.
Japanese salvage vessel Hozu is sunk by aircraft near Rabaul.
U.S. Navy:
USS Hake (SS-256) lands supplies on Panay. Tank landing ship LST-23 and medium landing ship LSM-20 are damaged by Japanese planes 70 miles northwest of Caiut Point, Leyte, 10°12'N, 125°19'E. Kamikazes damage destroyers Drayton (DD-366), 10°10'N, 125°20'E, and Mugford (DD-389), 10°15'N, 125°20'E.
Japanese planes attack convoy bound for Leyte, torpedoing U.S. freighter Antoine Saugraine at 09°42'N, 127°05'E; falling astern of the convoy, the freighter again comes under attack, is torpedoed a second time, and is abandoned. Frigates San Pedro (PF-37) and Coronado (PF-38), and Army tug LT 454 rescue the 42- manmerchant complement, 26-man Armed Guard and 376 Army troop passengers between them (see 6-7 December 1944). A kamikaze crashes freighter Marcus Daly in San Pedro Bay, Leyte, 09°34'N, 127°30'E; 1 of the 27-man Armed Guard is killed, as are 2 of the 40-man merchant complement and 62 of the 1,200 embarked Army troops; 49 men are wounded. Nearby, Armed Guard gunfire from freighter John Evans deflects a kamikaze from his suicidal course toward that ship, but the plane grazes the ship, glancing off the topmast and the stack before splashing close aboard. Bomb fragments cause some topside damage and wound four men (two of the 43-man merchant complement and 2 of the 26-man Armed Guard).
Medium landing ship LSM-149 is damaged by grounding, Philippine Islands.
Japanese escort destroyer Ikuna is damaged by aircraft off Formosa.
