May 19, 1945
Today in World War II Pacific History
Day by day chronology

SATURDAY, 19 MAY 1945

ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): Eight B-25s try to bomb Minami Cape radar installation and cannery on the Naka River on Shimushu; only one gets near the targets and bombs and strafes the area, while intense AA fire and enemy fighters drive off the rest. Lost is B-25J 43-36140 (3 POW, 3 MIA) and another B-25 with a third reaches Petropavlovsk, USSR.

CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): In China, 4 B-25s blast the Kaifeng warehouse area, destroying at least 5 warehouses, while another hits nearby railroad tracks; another B-25 bombs the town of Shanhsien; about 90 fighter- bombers attack river, road, and rail shipping, troops, supplies and general targets of opportunity, continuing the disruption of troop movement and withdrawal in S and E China.

INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): The detachments of the 127th and 155th Liaison Squadrons (Commando), 2d Air Commando Group, operating from Akyab Airfield with UC-64s and L-5s, return to base at Kalaikunda, India.

AAFPOA (VII Fighter Command): 100 P-51s are dispatched to escort B-29s to Tachikawa but abort due to weather. HQ 413th Fighter Group and 1st, 21st and 34th Fighter Squadrons arrive on Ie Shima from the US with P-47s.

HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): Mission 178: 272 B-29s make an abortive raid on the Tachikawa Aircraft Company and bomb the city of Hamamatsu; 14 others hit targets of opportunity; 4 B-29s are lost.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: B-24s pound Kiirun Harbor, B-25s sweep the west coast, of Formosa hitting several targets including Toyohara, Nisui, and along the Ts'eng-Wen River, hitting a railroad yard, storage facilities, and damaging an alcohol plant on the Ts'eng Wen and fighters sweep the Giran, Tainan and Heito areas. B-25s, A-20s, and fighter- bombers support ground forces throughout Luzon, concentrating in the Ipo Dam area. P-38s support ground action on Cebu. In Borneo, B-24s bomb Oelin Airfield and, along with P-38s, attack targets on Tarakan. The air echelon of the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 6th Reconnaissance Group, based at Dulag with F-5s, begins operating from Clark Field.