Aerial photographs of Allied bombing raids on Japanese occupied Burma.

There are actually two Kyaunggons shown on your map. But neither are the locations of a landing Ground.



From 93 C/4.

 

Good eyes, Simon. Now that you pointed out the second KYAUNGGAN, it seems a wonder that I missed it. Right there before my four eyes.

So where, I wonder, is that elusive KYAUNGGAN landing ground? I just watched "Young Frankenstein" on the telly. In the movie, Madeline Kahn breaks out into "Oh Sweet Mystery of Life At Last I've Found You". I wouldn't mind being able to sing the same line in regard to the location of this LG.

 

Matt,

I am wondering if Kyaunggan and Kangaung are not actually one and the same place. Perhaps a mangled mis-pronunciation.

Christopher Shores doesn't mention it in his Air War for Burma but then again, he doesn't mention a lot of things.

 

From 215 Squadron's Records.

18th January 1945. 0926 - 1649 hours. Meiktila Airfield.

12 aircraft were detailed to attack Meiktila Airfield, with 12 aircraft of 99 Squadron assisting. Some cloud was encountered enroute, but conditions over the target were clearer, with 2-4/10ths strato-cumulus at 4-5,000 feet. A fighter Escort of 12 P.38's and 20 P.47's met the bombers at Chittagong. All aircraft attacked in formation, with the exception of one, which, forced outwards on a turn before reaching the target area, bombed Thedaw Airfield obtaining hits on a taxi-track and road. At Meiktila, bombing was concentrated across both runways, several direct hits being scored, rendering the airfield unserviceable. Moderate H.A.A. fire from positions N.E. of Meiktila Town was experienced on bombing runs, being accurate at first, but deteriorating later. One aircraft was holed in several places by shrapnel, but there were no casualties, and all aircraft returned safely to base.



RAF Museum PC71/19/1518. Meiktila airfield under attack by RAF Liberators, 18 January 1945

 

perhaps of help?
Gazetteer to Maps of Burma

 

Many thanks for that, I was just looking through the same gazetteer but you have beaten me to it.

 

https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/NHC/NewPDFs/USArmy/USAAF Weekly Intell. Sum. No. 10.pdf
page 29:

also have a glance at:
The King's African Rifles - Volume 2
where Kyaunggon is located near Pauk

EDIT
The Reconquest Of Burma Vol Ii : Prasad,bisheshwar : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
pp. 304 bottom page

 

That USAAF intelligence summary is a very useful document, thank you for posting it. Are other editions available and if so where?

 

Never mind.
Have a try there:
Far Eastern Air Command Weekly Intelligence summary [No. 34], southeast Asia, 20 April 1945. Report No. 1-k(27), USSBS Index Section 6 - NDL Digital Collections
Japanese site with a huge database of USAAF documents
or there:
World War II Operational Documents
US site, also with a huge database of - you guess it - operational documents

 

Many thanks for posting the links. I have some dated USAAF photographs and it would be good to see the relevant summaries.

 

USAAF Intel no 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16,
World War II Operational Documents

 

Itdan,

many thanks for your continued help with these documents. I now need to see if any of my American photographs match up with the dates covered by these reports.

Simon

 

I've been off on tangents...not surprising to most of us, given unprecedented challenges, of late. I can't post a longwinded blurb now (rejoice, rejoice), but I wanted to thank Itdan for your postings, and also Simon for satisfying my curiosity about the landing ground near Ywathit, straddling the 21 degree North latitude line. Most interesting is that 3 Nov '44 document, to which Itdan linked us, and which mentions that a) Kyaunggon airfield was being built and b) there were then SEVEN landing grounds/airfields in the Meiktila Group, within about 20 x 20 miles. Oh yeah, that names gazetteer is a great resource for me. Curious me, I went and pared down the northern piece of map showing the landing ground cut in two by the 21 degree N. lat line, and I more or less fit it atop Google Earth. I see no remnants of revetments, though the fit isn't perfect. Possibly on the ground one could find a surviving revetment (as I've seen on some other abandoned Japanese airfields in Burma, especially Heho), but obviously this minor landing ground long ago was abandoned. We can see on Google Earth where the runway was. Cheers to all, hunker down, and stay safe. Matt

 

Some photographs of bomb damage to Rangoon. This is the Immanuel Baptist Church on Dalhousie Street photographed in 1945. The church was badly damaged in the December 1941 Japanese bombing of Rangoon.



The second photograph shows the Church in the early part of the 20th Century.


And lastly, as it looks today after its rebuilding in the 1950s.

 

Simon, Do you happen to have 93/D/1 or 93/D/2 ? I am trying to see better maps of this near Pauktaw village near Thazi..
https://goo.gl/maps/xRp9fVfiYvfQUvM27
20°45'53.0"N 96°00'50.7"E



This is in relation to this grave location

We have a thread on RAFCommands on it Blenheim 11 Sqdn collision on 5th April 1943 over Burma - Matheson and Besley - Page 4

 

Hello,

yes, I have both of those maps. I can post pictures tomorrow as it is too dark to photograph them tonight.

Simon

 

Here you go.

 

Thank you very much for that Simon. It's amazing to see an extra amount of detail in there that is not visible in the other maps or on Google. The map really helps identify the other villages not visible in the larger map or those not noted on the Google Maps.

 

Just wanted to add an update on my older post on Pauktaw. if you have followed the thread over at RAFCommands, the brother of one of the airmen killed, Wixted, visited the village in 1993 . Some photocopied images are here RAFCommands Website . You wills ee photos of the visit to the original grave site, and also one picture where the villagers are showing off the Blenheim cowlings that have survived over the years in the village Headman's house.

A fascinating document is this one, in which the brother gets a confirmation of the village Pauktaw and has an approximate location on a map marked


The map he was working with


Shows the length that people had to go through to just get the location of an umarked village on a map.. We really have it so easy nowadays!

 

While snooping around, I found myself on this page. I see a mistake of omission here in my posting of 29 Feb 2020 that I'd like to rectify.

On another site, containing the above then-and-now photos of the temple, the writing identifies the Liberator in the wartime photo as being from RAF 215 Squadron. While this may be true, there is no way of knowing for certain. That website took its info from what I'd written and posted on ww2talk.com (above), and while the webmaster kindly asked for my approval to use the photos and the info, it was only now, over two years later, that I read it and saw that the Lib was wrongly ID'd as a 215 Squadron bomber. I never said that this Lib was from 215 Squadron.

Furthermore, in the writeup I posted on 29 Feb 2020, I only mentioned two RAF Liberator squadrons which participated in the 22 Feb 1945 raid: 215 Squadron and 355 Squadron. However, further research has revealed that there were FOUR RAF Liberator squadrons and ONE US B-24 unit in on the bombing. The RAF squadrons: 99, 215, 355, and 356. The US unit was from the 7th Bomb Group. Although the Liberator in the photo was not from the 7th Bomb Group (one can see the RAF roundels on the upper wings), I have no idea whatsoever which of the four RAF squadrons the Liberator was from.

At this time, the various Liberator/B-24 squadrons (usually the RAF called the aircraft a "Liberator", while the Americans referred to it as a "B-24") flying out of India were frequently assigned the same general target, though they often were given different aiming points. The US was in on the action on many of these flights. Thus, five different units were involved in attacking the temple area on 22 February 1945.

That's it; I just wanted to clarify matters.