Chiang-Mai Airport bombing

[GWR]

Chiang-Mai bombing
Published on March 25, 2008

March 24 was the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Chiang Mai Airport during World War Two.

Thai Post yesterday recounted the events of that day, and we wanted to share the story with our readers as well.

Chiang Mai had been just a small town in the North before the Japanese Air Force decided to use the airport there as its Southeast Asian headquarters during World War Two.

But early on the morning of March 24, Chiang Mai Airport became the site of a major show of Allied force as Tomahawk fighters bombed a squadron of Japanese warplanes there.

Thai Post interviewed some of the people who lived in Chiang Mai back then. Boonserm Satraphai, was 12 years old at the time and recalled sneaking on to a Japanese warplane to play. A Japanese soldier spotted the boy on the plane and took him away, Boonserm said, but didn't hurt him.

Boonserm said in those days, the people of Chiang Mai didn't feel hostile towards the Japanese soldiers, partly because of the Japanese slogan that "Asia is for Asians".

Also, there were propaganda news items on the radio every day about how Allied Forces would harm the people.


http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/03/25/opinion/opinion_30069078.php

[airlana]

Tuesday, 24 March 1942
"Early morning five of the AVG 1st Squadron P-40s flew from Kunming to Namsang, close to Heho in Central Burma, where they were to be joined by four of the 2nd Squadron aircraft from Loiwing. On arrival however, no sign of the latter aircraft were t’o be seen, so the ‘Adam and Eves’ flew on to their target alone. This was Chiengmai airfield in Thailand, where an estimated 50 aircraft were seen on the ground. Sqn Ldr Bob Neale ordered an attack and the P-40s dived through heavy AA fire, made several passes and claimed 13 aircraft destroyed, all of which were identified as bombers. Neale, Charlie Bond. Greg Boyington, Bill McGarry and Bill Bartling were credited with two apiece, Neale and Bond shared another, as did Boyington and Bartling.

The four pilots from the 2nd Squadron had arrived at the rendezvous late, heading first to Chiengmai’s satellite airfields, where nothing was to be seen, but they did strafe two armoured cars whilst on their way to the main airfield. It seems that at least one of these pilots, Vice-Sqn Ldr Ed Rector, arrived while the 1st Squadron were still there, as he shared in the destruction of one aircraft with McGarry and claimed two more alone, bringing the total claims to 15.

However, as the 2nd Squadron aircraft swept over Chiengmai, the P-40 flown by the commanding officer, Jack Newkirk, was seen to take a direct hit and crash in flames. McGarry’s 1st Squadron aircraft was also hit and was seen to trail smoke; he baled out 55 miles from the border and remained at large for 28 days, before being captured by Thai police. The AVG had lost two of its leading pilots. However, the attack had been about as successful as estimated, although their victims had not been bombers, but Ki 43s of the 64th Sentai. Three of these went up in flames and at least ten others were damaged beyond repair.

Despite these losses the 64th Sentai was still able to despatch 11 fighters, that afternoon, to escort 53 Ki 21s to undertake a repeat attack on Akyab"

Source "Bloody Shambles" Vol2 Air Operations Over South East Asia December 1941 - May 1942 by Christopher Shores and Yasuho Izawa

---------------------

and this from the US Embassy, Thailand

History of the Flying Tiger Heroes
Formally known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG), the Flying Tigers were an exceptionally effective combat unit. In the early days of World War II, after surprise Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines and other Pacific bases, the United States and its allies were on the defensive everywhere in Asia. Only the AVG, a small band of American airmen who flew under the Chinese Flag under the command of Claire Lee Chennault, seemed to stand in the way of a quick Japanese victory in Burma and China. In combat less than seven months, the Flying Tigers achieved a most impressive record. They were credited with destroying 299 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, and on the ground they destroyed a further 200 enemy aircraft and great quantities of Japanese supplies and equipment.

In the face of the Japanese advance, the Flying Tigers kept the port of Rangoon and the Burma road open for two vital months. When the Japanese army started its move into southern China in May 1942, the Flying Tigers stopped it cold at the Salween River gorge on the China-Burma border. The Japanese were kept out of Kunming and China was saved form defeat. Among the Flying Tigers who flew over Thailand was Charlie Mott, who fought the Japanese in the Thai skies during the earliest days of the war. He was shot down and captured by the Japanese. Before the war ended, he was rescued from the infamous River Kwai camp by members of the Free Thai movement. Alsoof note were Ed Rector, Charlie Bond and Robert 'Buster' Keeton, who participated in one of the war's first major strikes against the Japanese air force. On March 24, 1942, six AVG P-40 Tomahawks made an early morning attach on an air base the Japanese had established at Chiang Mai. During that attach, the P-40 flown by William 'Black Mac' McGarry was hit by ground fire and crashed deep in the Thai Jungle near Mae Hong Son. McGarry was captured and his escape from a POW compound in Bangkok and his exfiltration form Thailand awas assisted by Free Thai officers.

Almost 50 years later, the wreckage of McGarry's aircraft was located by the Royal consort, Group Capt. Veerayuth Didyasarin and pulled from the jungle by the Foundation for the Preservation and Development of Thai Aircraft, of which Veerayuth is the president. The wreckage of McGarry's Tomahawk is on display at the Foundation for the Preservation and Development of Thai Aircraft hanger in Chiang Mai.

The creation of the AVG was a secret operation. In March 1941, although officially neutral in the war that Japan brought to China, the United States began to aid the Chinese government. The Chinese were given US$ 25 million, which enabled them to buy 100 P-40 Tomahawks previously destined for England. In April 1941, President Roosevelt signed an order allowing officers and men to resign from the US armed forces to join the AVG. A privats US aviation company recruited pilots and support personnel from the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps, ostensibly for service in 'training units' in China. Nienty-nine pilots and 186 ground support personnel sailed for Asia during the summer of 1941.

They were assembled in Rangoon, where their aircraft arrived by ship, Accidents and attrition reduced the number of pilots to about 70. The AVG was still preparing for combat when, on Dec 7th 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought America into World War II. The AVG pilots were among the first to strike back at the Japanese Empire. They fought with such determination and skill that the Chinese newspapers started calling them the "Flying Tigers". A winged tiger designed by the Walt Disney Studios joined the shark's teeth painted on the fuselages of AVG Tomahawks.

This history contributed by Thailand's Foundation for the Preservation and Development of Thai Aircraft.
Background of the AVG Flying Tigers Memorial

Members of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) Flying Tigers visited Thailand in November 1994. The purpose of the visit was to view the wreckage of one of their P-40s piloted by William McGarry that had crashed following and AVG raid on the Japanese Air Force Headquarters at Chiang Mai on 24 March 1942. The P-40 wreckage was discovered in 1990, pulled form the jungle by the Foundation for the Preservation and Development of Thai Aircraft and moved to the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) base at Chiang Mai.

The Flying Tigers also visited Lamphun where AVG pilot Jac Newkirk was killed in the crash of his aircraft after being struck by round fire during the 24 March 1942 raid. For the 1994 Flying Tigers visit, the Governor of Lamphun province arranged a temporary memorial at the edge of the rice fields where Newkirk had been buried after the crash. The governor expressed a wish that the memorial would be made permanent, but the site was remote and the small memorial soon fell into disrepair.

In the years that followed, Thais who had been involved with the Flying Tigers visit spoke of establishing a permanent memorial to Newkirk and the AVG Flying Tigers. It was believed that any permanent memorial should be placed in Chiang Mai where it would be easily accessible to residents and visitors. The place chosen for the memorial was Chiang Mai's foreign cemetery, a pleasant and well-located site given in perpetuity to the foreign community by the Thai King in the late 19th century. The cemetery was maintained by the British consulate until the consulate was closed some years ago. Since then it has been maintained by a committee of foreign residents.

The AVG memorial was placed in the cemetery in July 2003----------------------------------

Further recommended reading at The Warbird Forum

http://www.warbirdforum.com/fallbak2.htm

and "Honoring the Tiger" 4 page article from "Air Classics" magazine

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3901/is_200403/ai_n9398794/pg_1

airlana

[Jacobyte]

It's nice to see mention of this historic anniversary in this forum.

For the record, the 24 March Thai Post article was written by Ajarn Jack Eisner. The 25 March issue of The Nation attributes the article, and interview with Khun Boonserm Satrapay, to the Thai Post, but this is not correct. Ajarn Jack conducted the interview and Khun Supatchaya Areemit was the translator for the interview.

Ref: http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?p=20513

[Kuzari]

I've seen the Thai translation of Aj Jack Eisner's article but can't read it very well since my reading ability in Thai is not up to it. Since it's a translation of what I assume is an English-language original, I'd like to ask Aj Jack to post it on the forum, unless he's going to have it published elsewhere.

[Jacobyte]

The Day Chiang Mai Entered the Stage of World History
By Ajarn Jack Eisner

* This is the English version of an article in Thai that appeared in the 24 March, 2008 edition of the Thai Post.

Jack Eisner is a full-time lecturer in the English Department, Chiang Mai University.

By the dawn’s early light on the morning of March 24, 1942, five fighter planes of the Chinese Air Force, shark mouths painted on their noses, approached Doi Suthep Mountain from the west. Recognizing the mountain peak above the clouds as their marker, the P-40 Tomahawks dove, machine guns firing on the approximately 50 Japanese Hayabusa (red falcon) fighter planes of Major Tateo Kato’s 64th Sentai, parked wing-to-wing on the airfield just south of Wat Suandok.

Before that morning, few people outside the country had heard of Chiang Mai, a small town in Thailand’s mountainous north. The 8 minutes during which the Flying Tigers destroyed 15 enemy planes transformed Chiang Mai into an Allied symbol of victory against all odds at a time when Japan’s invasion of South East Asia appeared unstoppable.

The next day, March 25, 1942, the name of Chiang Mai entered the vocabulary of world history with the New York Times headline story: "U.S. Fliers in Burma Smash 40 Planes" (the official count was in fact 15). The April 6 issue of Time Magazine also featured an article on the Chiang Mai raid.

The already famous “Flying Tigers”, as they came to be known during their short 9-month life span, inflicted the worst single-day damage the 64th Sentai would experience in the entire war. For the Allies, who had been in retreat since December 7, 1941, Chiang Mai was a turning point.

It was twelve weeks since World War II in the Pacific had begun with the Japanese bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. Thailand declared itself an ally of Japan in December 1941, and in January 1942 declared war on the United States and Great Britain. Singapore fell in February. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the fall of Singapore, in which 9,000 British, Australian and Empire soldiers were killed and 130,000 taken prisoner of war, "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history".

Rangoon fell on March 8, after a fierce ground and air battle. The Japanese were pushing north through Burma, hoping to cross the Salween River Gorge, and take Kunming in southern China. Northern Thailand became the staging area for the Japanese Army Air Force, and Chiang Mai the headquarters of the Japanese Southeast Asian air command.

Boonserm Satraphay, an award-winning Chiang Mai newspaper reporter and photographer, was 12-years-old in 1942. One morning, at 11:00 am, he saw 40-50 heavy Japanese bombers flying from Lampang, over Chiang Mai to Burma. They returned at 3:00 pm, some of them landing in Chiang Mai, and the rest returning to Lampang. Although it was forbidden for civilians to listen to the British radio broadcasts from New Delhi, Boonserm tuned into the Thai language program that evening, and heard that Mandalay had been bombed.

The Flying Tigers, American pilots who volunteered to fly for the Chinese Air Force before the US was at war with Japan, are now famous as one of the most effective fighter plane units in the history of air warfare. In March 1942, twenty Flying Tigers based in Kunming were one of the very few military units capable of stopping the Japanese invasion from northern Burma into southern China. In the Battle of Rangoon, the Tigers destroyed over 200 Japanese planes, while losing only 16 of their own, inspiring Churchill to compare them to the RAF pilots in the Battle of Britain.

At the Chiang Mai airfield on the morning of March 24, 1942, Japanese ground crews and pilots were preparing four Hayabusas for a raid on the RAF air base at Akyab in Burma. Major Tateo Kato, already famous as one of Japan’s top aces, did not expect an attack, knowing that Kunming was farther than the fuel of a P-40 Tomahawk could take it. He did not count on the Tigers refueling at British-held airfields in northern Burma.

Flying in complete darkness, with no radar, the Tigers timed their departure from Kunming so they would arrive in Chiang Mai, still in darkness, but in time for the first rays of the sun to lead them to the Japanese airfield.

The young Boonserm Satrabhay and his family lived on Chiang Mai’s Charoen Muang Road, just east of the train station. Hearing the explosions coming from the airfield, he ran outside the house and saw the Flying Tigers diving for the airfield. He and his family quickly ran to their homemade earth and stone bomb shelter behind the house.

Among the Americans and Japanese who faced each other that morning were individuals already considered war heroes. Jack Newkirk was the Squadron Leader of a second group of four planes that strafed Chiang Mai train station minutes before the attack on the airfield. Just a few weeks earlier the New York Times called Newkirk a hero for shooting down 25 planes in the Battle of Rangoon.

From the train station, Newkirk’s squadron turned to Lamphun, 20 kilometers south. His plane was seen following the railroad tracks, when it was hit by ground fire. Newkirk was killed instantly when his plane crashed near Wat Phra Yuen.

Another Tomahawk, in the First Squadron, was also hit by ground fire while attacking the airfield. Bill McGarry attempted to fly his plane to Burma, but crashed near Mae Hong Son. He managed to parachute before the crash, landing safely in a clearing. The rest of the squadron, who had been following his crippled plane, circled the clearing to make sure McGarry was alive. One pilot dropped him a chocolate bar another pilot dropped him a map. That was all they could do before returning to Kunming. McGarry evaded the Japanese for 28 days, but was captured by the Thai police. He was handed over to the Japanese in Chiang Mai for interrogation. Afterwards, he was imprisoned in Bangkok. With the help of the Seri Thai, McGarry escaped, and was able to make his way back to Kunming.

The wreckage of McGarry’s P-40 Tomahawk was found 50 years later. What remained of the wreckage was brought to Chiang Mai in 1994, and is today on public display at the RTAF Wing 41 air museum, located at the same airfield the Flying Tigers attacked on March 24, 1942.

After that mission, Newkirk was replaced as squadron leader by Tex Hill, who stayed in the air force after the war, retiring as a Brigadier General in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. The famous Hollywood actor John Wayne, in his 1942 movie “Flying Tigers”, based his character on Tex Hill.

Hill returned to Chiang Mai in 1999, and visited Newkirk’s gravesite in Lamphun. Although Newkirk’s remains were reburied in his hometown of Scarsdale, New York in 1949, Lamphun local officials kept a wooden marker in the forest clearing where he was first buried.

Gregory “Pappy” Boyington was another of the pilots in the airfield raid. Boyington emerged from the war as one of the top American ace pilots, and was presented with the US’ highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, by President Truman at the White House. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1947 with the rank of colonel. He died in 1977 at the age of 75. In the 1970s, Hollywood actor Robert Conrad portrayed Boyington in the popular World War II TV series “Baa Baa Black Sheep”.

After the March 24 raid, the Japanese hid many of their planes among the trees along the dirt road that ran from the airfield to Wat Rampeung, at the foot of Doi Suthep Mountain. As a young teenager, Boonserm Satraphay drove his bicycle along this road, curious about the Japanese Hayabusas. Stopping to take a look at one of the airplanes parked in its earth-wall enclosure, he thought a speed gauge on the ground would make an interesting souvenir. As he picked it up and placed it in his school bag, he was grabbed by Japanese guards. Fortunately, he got off with a scolding and one of the soldiers threw Boonserm’s bag into the trees. He waited till they left, then retrieved the bag and returned home.

Boonserm said that for the most part, the relations between the Japanese soldiers and the residents of Chiang Mai was peaceful. He said, “The Japanese had a slogan at that time that we Thais liked – “Asia for the Asians.” Prime Minister Pibhun Songkhram and other senior government officials would often speak on the radio scorning the Europeans and praising the Japanese.”

It has been 66 years since the fateful events of March 24, 1942, but the memory of that day has remained strong for many people.

In 1994 former Flying Tigers Major General Charles Bond, Ed Rector and Bus Keeton visited Chiang Mai. They traveled to Lamphun to pay their respects on the edge of a rice field, near Wat Phra Yuen, where Newkirk lay buried until 1949. Ed Rector retired from the US Air Force with the rank of colonel in 1962. He died in 2001 at the age of 84.

On November 11, 2003, a memorial was dedicated at the Chiang Mai Foreigner’s Cemetery, honoring the Flying Tigers and the Seri Thai (Free Thai underground). Present were former pilots Major General Charles Bond, Dick Rossi, Bob Layher, and Peter Wright. Also present were Darryl Johnson, US Ambassador to Thailand, Prince Bhisatej Rajani of the Seri Thai, and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Daley.

The newly created Chiang Mai Veterans of Foreign Wars (an American war veterans organization) Post 12074 was established in January 2008 in memory of Squadron Leader Jack Newkirk.

[Kuzari]

Thanks for posting the article in English.
I noticed two things in particular in the article:
1) The air raid on the Japanese planes at the Chiang Mai airport was carried out by American pilots flying officially for the Chinese airforce, not the US aircorps.
2) It is mentioned in the article that Thailand had declared war on the US in January 1942. As far as I know, the US did not respond with its own declaration of war with Thailand, and after the war the US maintained that the US and Thailand had not been at war. This article however suggests that there was a state of war existing between the two countries. Apparently, the US did not recognize the declaration of war by the Thai government as the action of a sovereign government and implicitly at least considered Thailand to be under occupation by the Japanese and therefore the declaration of war by the Thai government was not the action of an independent government. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look to clarify this? I would think that this issue has been addressed somewhere in the historiography of Thai-US relations.

[Jacobyte]

Reply to Kuzari #6

AMERICAN VOLUNTEER PILOTS IN THE CHINESE AIR FORCE

Yes, American pilots were flying for the Chinese Air Force while the US was still neutral. The article above "History of the Flying Tiger Heroes" in Airlana’s post #2, reprinted from the US embassy, explains some of the background.

There is a tradition among Americans to volunteer for foreign wars, when they support the cause. Before the US entered World War I, 265 Americans were flying in their own units – the Lafayette Escadrille - in the French Air Service. Ernest Hemingway’s novel “A Farewell to Arms” is based on his own experience as a volunteer ambulance driver in the Italian army in WWI. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), 450 American volunteers served the Republican side in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. By the time the US was forced into World War II, 6,700 Americans had already submitted applications to join the Royal Canadian Air Force or the British Royal Air Force. Of these, by December 1941, 244 were flying as the Eagle Squadrons. However, unlike the American volunteers flying for the Chinese, none of the American Eagle Squadron pilots had previous military experience. The 1986 Tom Hanks film “Every Time We Say Goodbye” is the story of an American volunteer Spitfire pilot in the RAF.

As mentioned in the US embassy article above, the creation of a volunteer group of American pilots and ground crew – recruited from within the ranks of the US military - to serve in the Chinese Air Force was a covert operation ordered by President Roosevelt. In an April 19, 1991 US Air Force memo, it states that, "Although the establishment of the AVG [American Volunteer Group] was undertaken independently of the United States government, members of the Roosevelt Administration, including the President himself, as well as Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau and others, played important roles in establishing the unit prior to Pearl Harbor…The AVG was specifically created to circumvent existing neutrality laws that prohibited the U.S. at that time from direct military involvement. President Roosevelt knew that war with Japan was inevitable.”

The need for the AVG was created by the deteriorating situation in China. Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931, forced the Chinese army out of Shanghai in 1932, and continued its drive to occupy all of the country. Japanese planes began bombing Chinese cities in 1937, and the Chinese air force was virtually destroyed. In 1939, with two-thirds of China under occupation, and with complete control of the skies, the Japanese began a relentless aerial bombing campaign of all the remaining free cities, to finally break Chinese resistance. With China’s seaports occupied by the Japanese, the only supply route for the free Chinese became the port of Rangoon in Burma, and a 700-mile long twisting mountain road, called “The Burma Road”, to Kunming in southern China. After Japan’s invasion of Southeast Asia in December 1941, Japanese bombers could easily attack the Burma Road, and Kunming, cutting off China’s last supply line from the outside world.

In 1938, Clair Lee Chennault, a retired US Army pilot with the rank of captain, was recruited by the Chinese to rebuild their air force on the American model. Chennault was also a leading developer of combat tactics for pursuit airplanes at a time when the popular military thinking emphasized the role of the heavy bomber in aerial warfare. He was the driving force behind the creation of the AVG. His tactics proved highly successful in the China-Burma theater, and the AVG, better known as the Flying Tigers, flew into the history books. In April 1942 he was recalled to the US Army Air Corps, with the rank of Brigadier General.

In their first battle on December 20, 1941, outside of Kunming, flying outdated Curtis P40s, the AVG destroyed 3 out of 10 Japanese bombers, with the loss of one of their own. No Japanese bombs dropped on Kunming. But the significance of the AVG victory was greater than the number of planes shot down. From that day on, the Japanese Air Force would never again completely control the skies over China.

In May 1942, the Flying Tigers played a decisive role in the outcome of WWII, and made military tactical history, when they prevented two Japanese divisions from crossing the Salween River – the gateway to southern China. Had the Japanese crossed the river, the remainder of free China would have fallen, and then the Japanese would have turned west to India.

The AVG ceased to exist as an independent unit on July 4, 1942, and was merged with the US Army Air Force 23rd Fighter Group. In the 7 short months of its existence, the Flying Tigers destroyed a reported 299 Japanese planes (with 153 probables), at a loss of 24 of their own. Its reputation alone was enough to keep Japanese bombers away from the Chinese wartime capital of Chunking. It freed the cities of eastern China from years of terror bombing, and gave Chinese and American morale a major boost at a time when it was dangerously low.


THAILAND’S DECLARATION OF WAR ON THE US

E. Bruce Reynolds, “Thailand’s Secret War”, chapter 1 covers this. Thailand’s minister to the US, Seni Pramot, the English-educated great-grandson of King Rama II, told Assistant Secretary of State Adolph Berle Jr. that he would refuse to deliver a declaration of war IF one came. “In fact, the formal notice…arrived at the State Department on 2 February via the Swiss Foreign Ministry and the American embassy in Berne.” The Americans chose to ignore it, officially viewing Thailand's government as Japanese-controlled and not representative of the will of its people, in the same way they ignored the declarations of war by the puppet governments of the Axis satellite states of Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria.

The British, on the other hand, took Thailand’s declaration of war at face value, and responded in kind on 9 February, 1942.

Also very insightful is "Thailand and the Japanese Presence 1941-45" by Thamsook Numnonda.

[Kuzari]

Thanks for the additional information about the Flying Tigers. And thanks for the references to further reading on the declaration of war. It seems that the US and the British took very different approaches to Thailand during the war.