Japanese bombing attack on NE India in May 1942

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

In mid-May 1942, Japanese aircraft flew several raids on NE India, including at least the following:
_ 10 May 1942: Imphal is bombed, the town and a refugee camp nearby are hit, most people left the town, including state servants and policemen. The CWGC Civilian dead list for Assam has 115 names on this date (about 25% of the whole war), including some tens of refugees from Burma. AFAIK all were killed in or around Imphal, and this list includes only people dying from direct war action, not by disease/exhaustion from the run from Burma, that is said to have claimed thousand of lives.

_ 16 May 1942: Imphal is bombed again. CWGC has 5 names for this date.

For both days above, the book "The Battlefields of Imphal The Second World War and North East India", by Hemant Singh Katoch, give a figure of "71 killed and around 80 wounded, plus at least 50 refugees also killed, including in lorries on the road and in the European refugee camp."

_ 18 May 1942: The CWGC Civilian dead list for Assam has 31 dead at Cachar, 30 of them precisely in Derby Tea Estate. Google research gives several links saying that workers were bombed this day by Japanese aircraft. Six other people linked to Derby Tea Estate are listed as dying between 20 May and 14 July 1942, and may have died from wounded suffered from this raid. Cachar is 140 km west of Imphal, and this raid is not listed in Hemant Singh Katoch's book.

I would like to know more on the Japanese units involved in these raids. Bloody Shambles vol 2 describes Burma Air War up to 22 May 1942, but last mention of Japanese raids is on 9 May (Ki-21s from 7th Battalion raiding Chittagong). From 10 to 22 May, the book only describes attacks by Allied fighters and bombers and eventual reaction of Japanese fighters. The book Air War for Burma then starts in June 1942.

[Edward]

Wow. Great post. I wish I had something to share. Perhaps the 7th BG histories (Dorr 1997 & Young 2014) or Gen. Brereton's war diary might have some information.

[RSwank]

This mentions the 64th Sentai for the 10 May bombing:

http://kanglaonline.com/2016/05/10th...world-war-2nd/

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks for the link, the casualty list is the same as mine and coming from CWGC. As for the 64th Sentai involvement, this part of the text seems unrelated to the rest for me, but the author probably added it from the Osprey book he had. According to Shores book, in May 1942, JAAF had the following fighter and bomber units in Burma:
1 Sentai (Ki-27) - last
8 Sentai (Ki-48)
11 Sentai (Ki-27)
12 Sentai (Ki-21)
14 Sentai (Ki-21)
27 Sentai (Ki-51)
31 Sentai (Ki-30)
64 Sentai (Ki-43)
77 Sentai (Ki-27)
98 Sentai (Ki-21, left mid May 1942)

Last two Japanese raids listed in Bloody Shambles vol 2 are a raid on 5 May against Paoshan (China) by 27 Sentai escorted by 11 and 64 Sentai, and a raid by Ki-21s on 9 May against Chittagong.
By the way I was wrong when I said that Shores described no Japanese raid between 10 and 22 May, there is one: on 21 May Lt Col Kato led 7 Ki-43s of 64 Sentai on a sweep to attack Chittagong airfield but no British aircraft were seen and during the return flight one pilot had to bail out when his fighter suddenly burst into flames and was captured.
It seems to me that 64 Sentai is the Japanese unit covered with the most details by Shores, and so was probably not involved in the raids on Imphal and Silchar.

Japanese air units were based in Magwe, including very probably 77 Sentai who fought air battle against RAF bombers there on 10 and 12 May. 64 Sentai was probably still in Mingaladon, near Rangoon, and moved detachments to Akyab mid-May, scoring first victory on the 17th. 27 Sentai was based in Tongoo in late April, and from there Paoshan and Imphal are roughly the same distance, so any Japanese bomber and fighter unit might have been involved.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

By the way, I checked various chronologies and only thing I found was that Imphal was bombed by 34 Japanese planes on 16 May 1942 according to the World War II Chronology compiled by US military (https://www.fold3.com/image/286800619). Same source just say on 10 May that Imphal was bombed, and has nothing on 18 May for the raid on Silchar.

I also checked 5 Sqn ORB, the only fighter RAF unit then in Assam, but it has no entries between 5 May (moving to Dinjan) and 16 June 1942. Don' know what happens to ORB between these dates, or if someone bothered to write it at all, but from 16 June Form 540 is fairly detailed (compensing the fact that there is no Form 541 before February 1943).

Last I am reading the book "First Burma Campaign", by E CV Foucar. Interesting book, but so far nothing on the raids on Assam. On 10 May 1942 a fierce battle took place on the Chindwin River at Shwegyin, which was bombed by Japanese aircraft on 7 and 9 May. By the way, the author apparently uses only Allied sources to estimate Japanese losses both on the ground and in the air, so overestimated them a lot.

[Larry deZeng]

Possibly of some help?

[United States, U.S. Army, General Staff, G-2 Historical Section, Far East Command], Japanese Studies in World War II (also as Japanese Monographs). 185 published and unpublished studies written by former officers of the Japanese Army and Navy under Allied supervision between 1945 and 1960:

No.64 – Burma Air Operations Record, Jan 1942 – Aug 1945

L.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks, I will search it.

[Håkan]

Hello Laurent,

No.64 – Burma Air Operations Record, Jan 1942 – Aug 1945 unfortunately doesn't included anything about raids on Imphal in May 1942.

Best regards/Håkan

[Larry deZeng]

Thank you, Håkan. That will save Laurent from spending time looking for No. 64. It was just a hopeful suggestion on my part. However, the appropriate Senshi Sosho volume almost certainly would have the details on these May 1942 raids. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senshi_S%C5%8Dsho ]. Laurent could find out by posting an inquiry here:
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewforum.php?f=65. A distinguished Japanese scholar, researcher and all-around good fellow there by the screen name of Fontessa either has or has access to the Senshi Sosho volumes and I'm sure would take a moment to check on the Imphal raids if asked.

L.