The Attack

The Japanese squadrons took to the skies from airfields in Thailand and Indochina on the morning of December 23. By the time they arrived over Rangoon, there were few clouds in the air and a light breeze blew from the south, thus allowing them to visually strike at the selected targets. Just before 10 a.m., the operations room at Mingaladon reported two waves of approaching raiders. Once the news came through, the base's fighters were hastily ordered to scramble in order to intercept the enemy bombers. A dozen Curtiss Tomahawks and fifteen Brewster Buffalos of the Royal Air Force and the American Volunteer Group (AVG) took off and began climbing for all the height they could manage in the time available. The Japanese aircraft arrived forty minutes after the first warning. A squadron of twin-engine bombers (62nd Sentai) made for Mingaladon with the slower single-engine fighter-bombers (31st Sentai) and fighters (77th Sentai) swarming behind. The other two squadrons of twin-engine bombers (60th and 98th Sentais) headed towards Rangoon city in a separate stream.

A pair of Buffalos already in the air for a routine patrol was first to attack the bombers heading for Mingaladon. A flight of Tomahawks soon gained sufficient height to attack the incoming Japanese aircraft. From a line astern, the fighters peeled off to rake the bombers with machine gunfire. More Tomahawks joined the battle and pilot Chuck Older forced a bomber out of formation trailing smoke. Another bomber crashed on the waterfront; the gun crew on the American freighter City of Tulsa made a claim, though the falling aircraft was probably already fatally crippled." AVG pilot Hank Gilbert's Tomahawk was shot down by defensive fire from bombers; Gilbert was the AVG's first combat death. Paul Greene bailed out when his Tomahawk went out of control; he was knocked out when he hit the earth and awoke to find he was looking along the gun barrel of a British soldier.

The 62nd Sentai - the Ki-21 squadron that had bombed Mingaladon - lost five bombers out of fifteen in the raid. All of the remaining bombers of the squadron had suffered damage. Meanwhile, a further two squadrons of Japanese twin-engine bombers had headed towards the center of Rangoon. Six Tomahawks were circling over Syriam, downriver of Rangoon, on the look-out for incoming raiders. Before long a well-drilled formation of green camouflaged twin-engine bombers was sighted approaching at 17,000 feet. The leading formation of this wave comprised eighteen bombers of the 98th Sentai; the squadron was commanded by Colonel Shigeki Usui. The Tomahawks attacked in two sections of three aircraft. One Tomahawk was damaged by the air gunners of the bombers and the pilot killed. Two of the bombers were knocked out of formation and shot down in a series of attacks by the American fighters. Three crew bailed out of one of the bombers. The body of a Japanese airman was later recovered beneath the folds of a parachute holding a grenade in the frozen claw of his hand. Several other bombers were damaged in the engagement; Colonel Usui was killed by machine-gun fire sitting in his co-pilot's seat.

Despite this, the bombers managed to inflict much damage to the selected targets. The 62nd Sentai bombed the Mingaladon airfield, damaging a number of aircraft, the operations room, the hangar, and fuel tanks. At the same time, the 98th Sentais concentrated on the city's downtown districts, and the Allied planes only intercepted less than 10 Japanese bombers. 20 minutes after bombing run by the 98th, 27 Japanese bombers of the 60th dropped payloads of bombs into downtown districts without much opposition and headed for home.

High-explosive and incendiary bombs leveled over three-fifths of the wooden-buildings and incinerated many residents; flying glass and collapsing houses caused a stampede that trampled underfoot those who had fallen. An Indian shopkeeper said, "It was (a) pitiable sight to see women with disheveled hair and babes in arms crying and running where their fear-laden whimsies took them...More pathetic were children who clung to running men and women, mistaking them for their parents."