SATURDAY, 3 MARCH 1945
CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): Four B-24s over the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea attack shipping targets of opportunity, claiming 1 vessel sunk and 3 damaged. In French Indochina, 3 B-25s hit Kep, damaging several locomotives and boxcars and hit a bridge and 12 P-51s hit targets of opportunity between Vinh and Nam Dinh (2 direct hits are scored on the bridge at Minh Koi) while two P-51s blast a HQ building in Hanoi.
INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 24 P-38s and P-47s support forces of the Chinese 50th Division near Mansam; 16 support the British 36 Division in the Mogok area; 10 P-47s knock out the Na-lang bridge while 2 B-25s drop delay-action bombs in good pattern around the Loi-leng bridge; 10 B-25s join 80+ fighter-bombers in an attack on troops, supplies, tanks, trucks, gun positions, and transport elephants behind enemy lines, 29 of the fighter-bombers concentrate on the Kankang area. 643 air supply sorties are completed.
MALAYA - One B-29 was shot down, another three damaged while attacking Singapore.
AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): 10 B-24s from Guam pound Susaki Airfield in an afternoon strike, and 4 more, flying individual strikes, hit the
same target during the night of 3/4 Mar. The 467th and 468th Fighter Squadrons,
508th Fighter Group, move from Kahuku to Mokuleai, Hawaii with P-47s.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: In Formosa, B-24s pound the Tainan area and Kiirun while fighters hit numerous targets of opportunity
and fighter-bombers bomb Koshun Airfield. B-25s bomb San
Roque Airfield. B-24s and B-25s attack Zettle Field. Ternate on Samar
and Echague and Caballo is bombed by A-20s. B-25s,
aborting a strike against Formosa, bomb the airstrip at Basco.
RNZAF: Spotted from the air are two Japanese tanks: Type 89 Chi-Ro Tank No. 1 and Type 89 Chi-Ro Tank No. 2 and both are attacked for the next three days by RNZAF aircraft.
RNZAF: Two Corsairs from No. 18 Squadron patrolling Ruri Bay in northern Bougainville spot two Japanese tanks: Type 89 Chi-Ro Tank No. 1 and Type 89 Chi-Ro Tank No. 2 and strafe both and return with another Corsair that drops a 1,000 pound bomb and spot a third tank. Later in the day, seven more aircraft
from Piva bombed the tanks and left one on fire, and strafed the third tank which had not moved. It was hit and its ammunition exploded, 'completely wrecking it'. The tanks are attacked for the next three days from the air.
