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Last days in Burma:
Kato meets Sgt McLuckie

In the evening of May 3, the Japanese Army 56th Division captured the American base and factory at Loiwing, with 6 Tomahawks on the "production line" and the parts to build 20 more. [The CAMCO factory was now a repair facility for the AVG. The P-40s were wrecks trucked up from Rangoon in March, or brought in for repair more recently. Another account says the Japanese found 22 burned airplanes at Loiwing, which suggests that Harvey Greenlaw may have done a better job than I gave him credit for.] The AVG, meanwhile, had pulled back into China, where they could "get more Chinese soldiers to help them."

The JAAF pursued the AVG to Baoshan, China, on May 4. Taking off from Mingaladon airport near Rangoon, Ki-21 heavy bombers of the 98th Sentai attacked Baoshan with an escort of 64th Sentai Ki-43 Hayabusas. They were met by two AVG P-40s led by Charlie Bond. "Lots of bullets" sprayed the heavy bombers, with one "Sally" destroyed and several damaged with three crew members badly wounded. Their return fire [or, more likely, the escorting Hayabusas] damaged the armor plate on Bond's P-40 and forced him to make a parachute landing. [Bond was burned when his plane caught fire. He was in fact the only Flying Tiger pilot to get off the ground that day.]

On May 5 a return visit was spoiled by an overnight raid on Mingaladon by an American B-17 based in India, which destroyed two heavy bombers on the ground, damaged at least 10 more, and also destroyed a cargo plane. Thus it was fighter planes and light bombers that attacked Baoshan, with dismal results: the 27th Sentai lost two Ki-30 "Ann" light bombers, the 11th Sentai lost three or four of its Ki-27 "Nate" fighters while claiming two AVGs shot down, and the 64th Sentai had one Hayabusa damaged or destroyed in a crash landing on its return from Baoshan. [The Tigers meanwhile claimed 7 Japanese planes destroyed--fairly close to the mark--while losing no aircraft of their own.]

Attacking JAAF bases in Burma, the Blenheims flew low over the Bay of Bengal to prevent interceptors from getting beneath them.

On May 9, British Blenheim bombers launched their first raid on Japanese bases in Burma, destroying four 77th Sentai fighters and a Lockheed transport on the ground at Magwe. This was followed by a second raid and one on Akyab, on the west coast of Burma. The 64th Sentai therefore moved cross-country from Toungoo to defend Akyab, arriving just in time to encounter an attack by a British Lockheed Hudson, for all practical purposes the same plane as the "Type LO" Electra that the group was using to transport its ground crews and equipment. It was now the rainy season in Burma, with high temperatures and high humidity; many of the airmen came down with dengue fever, including Colonel Kato. "Many soldiers lost their physical condition and also their spirit."

Again, the Akyab garrison was attacked by a Hudson on May 17. The 64th Sentai was caught by surprise: "in a mess," says the historian, with one pilot wounded. The Hayabusas were unable to catch the British plane, which flew 50 meters above the water, too low for them to get a favorable attack position from below. (The Hudson evidently was lost, either to battle damage or mechanical breakdown.) The British returned two more times over the next two days, but the 64th Sentai was able to strengthen its Akyab garrison with Colonel Kato and six other pilots who flew over from Toungoo.

Heavy rains gave a respite, but the weather broke on May 21, when the British returned. Kato and six others chased them across the Bay of Bengal to Chittagong, but lost them in clouds. Returning empty-handed, they lost one of their number when Lt. Shimizu--out of fuel or experiencing an engine breakdown--parachuted from his plane into the palm trees on the Burma shores. Kato led a search for him without success. At Akyab, the 64th Sentai was almost out of ammunition and food, with their meals now down to eggplant eaten raw or boiled in salt water for breakfast and again for dinner. Next day—May 22—Kato waited until 2 p.m. Tokyo time, hoping Shimizu would walk in or be reported by the Burmese volunteers who were searching for him. At this moment, the main RAF base at Akyab, which the 64th Sentai had recently abandoned in favor of the dispersal field, was bombed by Blenheims.

The 64th Sentai pilots took off in pursuit, catching one Blenheim over the water. This was the plane flown by Warrant Officer Huggard of RAF 60 Squadron, who flew at wave-top height to prevent the enemy fighters from getting beneath him, and to give the best defensive position to his turret gunner, Sergeant McLuckie.

Sergeant Yasuda was the first to attack; his Hayabusa was badly damaged by McLuckie's machine guns, and he peeled off and returned to Akyab. The second to attack was Capt. Otami, who made some hits but in turn had his fuel tank holed; he followed Yasuda back to base. (Otami's plane was a write-off.) Colonel Kato now attacked the Blenheim, to become the third Hayabusa winged by the aptly-named McLuckie. As seen by other pilots who had not joined the combat, his right wing burst into flame; supposedly realized hs was doomed, Kato did a wing-over and dove into the sea, "thus dying a noble death" of his own choosing. It was 2:30 p.m. Tokyo time, 10 kilometers west of Asanyo, Burma. In their grief, the two remaining pilots let the Blenheim escape (though some Japanese accounts claim wrongly that Kato shot it down), and themselves returned to Akyab with their account of "the hero's sacrifice." As the Japanese historian realtes, they wept and struck their shoulders as they told the story. He became the first Japanese army officer to be promoted posthumously two grades, from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general.

"The spirit of fighting in the Japanese air force was shaken. Everyone was crying with sadness, and the fighting spirit was down."

Click here for a Japanese artist's representation of this combat.

The final tally of the Burma campaign