FRIDAY, 13 APRIL 1945
ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): Twenty-seven P-38s and P-40s scramble fron Attu Airfield after
radar reports of unidentified plots over the western Aleutians. The fighters manage to shoot down nine of eleven Japanese
bomb-balloons.
CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): 6 B-25s hit a fort at Bac Ninh, French
Indochina. In China, 11 B-25s bomb the railroad yards and warehouse area at
Kaifeng and 6 knock out a bridge at Ningming; Seven B-25s hit shipping in the South
China Sea, Bakli Bay and the town areas of Tenghsien and Liuchow; 4 others, along with 5 P-51s, knock out a bridge and hit the town area
and shipping at Puchi; 24 P-38s and P-51s knock out 3 bridges, damage another,
and hit several targets of opportunity in N French Indochina; about 140 fighter-bombers
fly armed reconnaissance and strikes throughout S and E China, hitting rail,
road, and river traffic, town areas, troops, and general targets of opportunity.
Unit moves in China: the detachment of the 16th Fighter Squadron, 51st Fighter
Group, operating from Poseh with P-51s returns to base at Chengkung; the 490th
Bombardment Squadron (Medium), 341st Bombardment Group (Medium), from Warazup,
Burma to Hanchung with B-25s.
INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 30+ P-47s and P-38s attack
troops and supplies in the Hamn gai, Loi-hseng, and Wan Yin areas and sweep
roads S of the bomb line in C Burma; air transport operations to the front areas
total 450 sorties. The 317th Troop Carrier Squadron (Commando), 2d Air Commando
Group, moves from Palel to Kalaikunda, India with C-47s.
AAFPOA (Seventh AF): Eighteen Guam based B-24s pound enemy positions on Marcus; 23 B-24s from Angaur Airfield bomb personnel and storage
areas at Kabacan on Mindanao Island. 2 Saipan-based P-61 night fighters bomb
and strafe Pagan.
HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): Mission 67: During the night of 13/14 Apr, 327
B-29s bomb the Tokyo arsenal area; 3 others hit targets of opportunity; 7 B-29s
are lost.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: B-24s hit the Hong
Kong waterfront (Taikoo Docks) and storage areas in Canton. On Formosa,
other B-24s hit Tainan Airfield and Okayama Airfield while B-25s attack railroads.
On Luzon, numerous sweeps are flown over the Cagayan Valley and ground
support missions are continued on Luzon, Cebu, and Negros. On Mindanao, B-24s bomb the Davao area and B-25s hit various targets on Mindanao and in the Sulu Archipelago.
Ten P-38s from the 67th Fighter Squadron strafe and bomb targets at Tarakan and Sandakan on Borneo. Inbound, one P-38 aborts the mission.At 10:30am, the nine remaining P-38s arrived over Tarakan Island at minimum altitude and conducted bombing and strafing of enemy positions claiming two bomb hits on a radar and machine gun positions and a single hit on a personnel and supply area at the southern tip of Tarakan Island. Two other bomb hits were 1,000' northwest of the target area and one bomb hit 1,000' southeast of the target area. Two bombs were reported as duds and one bomb was jettisoned over the sea. The results of the skip bombing attacks from minimum altitude were unobserved and strafing runs were also made. At 11:30am they strafe an area approximately two miles southeast of Sandakan Airfield runway no. 2 and the road leading towards Sandakan two military trucks were strafed and destroyed. On the road approximately 1 and 3/4 miles from the runway three military cars were strafed with one damaged. Lost was P-38L 44-24519 (MIA).
