TUESDAY, 2 JANUARY 1945
CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): Six B-25s bomb Kentung, Burma. 30+ P-40s and P-51s on armed reconnaissance attack targets of opportunity, mainly railroad traffic, at or near Lohochai, Pengpu, and Sinyang, China; and Man Pong, Wanling, and Wan Pa-Hsa, Burma.
Burma: In NCAC area, U.S. 475th Inf begins crossing the Shweli over makeshift bridge put in by 138th Regt, Ch 50th Div, which crossed late in December 1944.
HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): Mission 24: 49 B-29s, operating from the Calcutta area, are dispatched to attack a railroad bridge at Bangkok;
44 hit the primary target and 2 hit an alternate and a target of opportunity;
they claim 0-1-1 Japanese aircraft.
INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, troop concentrations and supplies
are attacked at Mabein, Panghka, Mansut, Letpangon, Loi-mun, Panghkai, Namhsan,
Thabeikkyin, and in the Lashio area by 66 P-47s and 13 P-38s. 546 transport
sorties are flown to forward bases and frontline areas. In India, the 13th
Combat Cargo Squadron, 4th Combat Cargo Group, moves from Sylhet to Agartala with C-46s.
AAFPOA: 12 Guam based B-24s hit Haha Jima while 14 others pound Iwo Jima; during the night of 2/3 Jan, 10 B-24s, flying
snooper strikes out of Guam, hit Iwo Jima over a 7-hour period.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA: P-38s and A-20s
hit shipping in San
Fernando Harborsinking Coast Defense Vessel No.138, transport Meiryu Maru, army cargo ship Shirokawa Maru, merchant cargo ships Taishin Maru, Hakka Maru, Hishikata Maru and Koryu Maru, 16°37'N, 120°19'E. B-24s pound Clark
Field and B-25s hit Batangas; airfields in the C Philippine area are bombed
by B-25s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers while B-24s strike Likanan; Menado; and the Wasile Bay area. Other FEAF aircraft make armed
reconnaissance and harassing strikes
on targets of opportunity throughout the C Philippine area and the Netherlands
East Indies. The 8th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, moves from Tacloban to San
Jose with P-38s. Lost is P-38L "Putt Putt Maru III" 44-24843 (MIA). Crashed on take off is P-51D 44-15235 (survived).
U.S. Army: Convoys of Luzon Attack Force are assembling in Leyte Gulf. First echelon, Minesweeping and Hydrographic Group (TG 77.6), leaves Leyte Gulf for Luzon and is soon spotted and attacked by enemy planes, including kamikazes. On Mindoro, guerrilla patrol is reinf for attack on Palauan by Co B, 503d Para Inf, which moves to Mamburao. Work begins on one of two heavy bomber fields to be constructed. Enemy planes attacking airfields, night 2-3, destroy 22 aircraft.
USMC: VAC LANDFOR Operation Plan 3-44 for invasion of Iwo Jima is approved.
USN: Submarine Aspro (SS-309) damages Japanese landing ship Shinshu Maru south of Formosa Strait, 22°42'N, 119°14'E (see 3 January).
Submarine Becuna (SS-319) sinks Japanese ship Daian Maru east of Madoera Island, 05°50'S, 113°12'E.
USMC: Marine Aircraft Group 14 (MAG-14) including VMO-212, VMO--222, and VMO--223 land at Guiuam on Samar under the operational command of the Fifth Air Force between Februay 2-12, 1945.
