Burma Warrior: Pete Avrea's World War II Story in China-Burma-India 1944-1945 by Peter Avrea & Barbara Avrea

Author:Peter Avrea & Barbara Avrea [Avrea, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Maplewood Productions LLC
Published: 2018-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

November 1944, The Bombing Missions Continued

The month of November 1944 began with a squadron strength of 86 officers and 397 enlisted men with 16 aircraft on hand, 14 in commission. The outstanding event of a busy month was the destruction of the squadron’s 100th bridge, an accomplishment that brought the organization wide recognition in the press, both in the theater and at home, and in publications as well-known as Newsweek Magazine.

By now, the Allies possessed nearly complete command of the air, unchallenged and crushing. The Allied air arm for Burma and the Eastern Air command in November 1944 had in operational condition 125 U. S. Army Air Force fighters, 267 British Royal Air Force fighters, 48 AAF heavy bombers, 38 RAF heavy bombers, 72 AAF medium bombers, 198 AAF transports, and 35 RAF transports for a total of 783 Allied aircraft. The transports were most important for they gave the Allied ground forces a mobility and an independence of lines of communications on the ground that the Japanese could not have dreamt of approaching.

Against this force the Japanese had their 5th Air Division. Once masters of the Burma skies, the now weakened 5th’s pilots faced the expected Allied attack with about 12 bombers, 60 fighters, and 10 reconnaissance aircraft. With this handful of aircraft, the 5th Air Division was ordered to defend not only Burma, but Thailand and Indochina. Another problem that faced the Japanese air force was logistics -- the inability to get parts for maintenance because the channel of supply was stretched too thin. Many times aircraft were grounded for lack of a part or the people to get the airplanes into combat.

November 3rd saw Pete go up for his first mission of the month, and it was going to be rough. The mission was to bomb the storage facilities at the strategic and dreaded Nawnghio airdrome, which was located on the road and rail route between Mandalay and Lashio. The second target was the Meza Rail Station on the Myitkyina-Sagaing railroad line. Both targets were to be bombed from high altitudes. Twelve B-25 J’s with the greenhouse nose and Norden bombsight were assigned to the mission and were led by 1st Lt. Andy Squire and flight Leaders 1st Lts. Elden Cross and Don Karschner. Taking off in four flights of three planes at ten minute intervals, they thundered east and shot a course headed for Myitkyina.

At Myitkyina, nine planes led by Mission Leader Lt. Squire and flight Leader Lt. Cross broke off and turned south headed for Nawnghio. In that formation, Pete crewed in the dorsal turret of the plane flown by Lt. Bob Cole. For this strike, each Mitchell was loaded with 22 – 100 pound bombs, fused instantaneous.

In route, unfortunately the crews had to pass by the dreaded Goteik viaduct, where intelligence warned that the Japanese had installed batteries of 90 mm anti-aircraft guns. Mission Leader Andy Squire led the nine B-25s to an altitude of 8,000 feet with the hope that the Japanese shells could not reach them.

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