TUESDAY, 12 DECEMBER 1944
ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): The weather aircraft aborts the mission due to the weather.
CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): Six B-25s bomb Kutkai, Burma, damaging 3 warehouses and 2 other buildings. 50+ P-40s, P-51s, and P-38s on armed reconnaissance attack many targets of opportunity including town areas, road and rail traffic, and supplies at or near Wan Pa-Hsa, Burma, Chiengmai, Thailand, and Sinantien, Paoching, Hengyang, Changsha, Kweilin, Nan Tan, Hochih, and Szeenhsien, China. Several fighter-bombers drop napalm on Yangtong Airfield. The 2d Combat Cargo Squadron, 1st Combat Cargo Group, moves from Imphal to Tsuyung, China.
INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, twelve B-25s bomb several storage areas north of Lashio; 20+ P-47s knock out bridges at Namyao and Inailong, Burma, and Kunlong, China, and damage others at Ho-hko, Burma and Hinlong, and Kunlong, China; 40+ fighter-bombers hit Japanese HQ, trucks, town areas, troop concentrations, and supplies at Sedo, Pale, Chaunggyi, Tada-u, Hsenwi, Shwebo, and Thabyetha. 263 transport sorties are flown to forward areas. The 166th Liaison Squadron (Commando), 1st Air Commando Group, moves from Yazagyo to Inbaung, Burma with UC-64s and L-5s.
AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): 24 B-24s from Saipan pound Iwo Jima. Individual B-24s from Saipan and Guam fly five snooper strikes against Iwo Jima during the night of 12/13 Dec.
HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): The service groups of the 313th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy) arrives on Tinian.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: B-24s, with fighter
cover, bomb Bacolod Airfield on Negros while B-25s hit San
Roque Airfield.
B-24s pound Kendari Airfield. In the Ambon-Ceram-Boeroe area B-25s hit three airfields and attack barges. A-20s hit Efman Airfield. HQ 4th Photographic Group (Reconnaissance) moves
from Guadalcanal to Morotai.
The 460th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group, moves from Tacloban to Tanauan with P-47s.
At Tacloban during a short ceremony, Major Richard I. Bong was bestowed the Medal of Honor by General Douglas MacArthur. During the presentation, he tossed away his written remarks and said, "Major Richard Ira Bong, who has ruled the air from New Guinea to the Philippines, I now induct you into the society of the bravest of the brave, the wearers of the Congressional Medal of Honor of the United States." Postwar, Bong's Medal of Honor was displayed at the Memorial Room in Poplar, WI. Today, displayed at the Richard I. Bong Heritage Center.
RAAF: Lost on a training flight is P-40N Kittyhawk A29-601 (MIA).
