March 18, 1942
Today in World War II Pacific History
Day by day chronology

WEDNESDAY, 18 MARCH 1942

RAF: Blenheims of 45 Squadron escorted by five Hurricanes and five P-40s attacked boats on the Irrawaddy, while the fighters strafed the river banks.

AVG: Shortly afterwards, Flight Leaders Ken Jernstedt and Bill Reed flew a pair of 3rd Squadron P-40s down to Moulmein and to a subsiduary airfield ten miles south of the town, their aircraft each loaded with 30 fragmentation and incendiary bombs. They attacked both airfields catching many aircraft on the ground at each. The results were "staggering, some blew up, other burned; 15 or 25 aircraft seen claimed totally destroyed", stated the report. Reed claimed an 'MC 20-type' transport, two 'Army 97' bombers and five 'Army type 98' fighters destroyed, Jernstedt submitted similar claims, except he claimed only four fighters. The claims were quite accurate, though rather more prosaic. At Moulmein two Ki-21 bombers were, indeed, destroyed in flames, plus a Ki-48 and a Ki-15 badly damaged. The satellite field was Mudon, where three Ki-30s and a Ki-15 were burned, while two more Ki-30s were badly damaged; 31st Sentai, at this base, was left with only one serviceable aircraft. Obviously, the American pilots had identified the Ki-48 as a transport and the single-engined Ki-15s and Ki-30s as fighters, although they had double-claimed on these.

6th AF: B-17B 38-264 crashed on take off from Guatemala City Airfield.

IJN: Twenty A6M2 Zeros lead by three G4M1 Betty bombers from the 4th Kokutai took off from Lae Airfield on a reconnaissance and strike against Horn Island Airfield and find no Allied fighters. On the return flight, they strafe MV Canberra and wound 13 aboard. Afterwards, all attacking aircraft return to Lae Airfield by 2:40pm.

U.S. Army: Two companies from 182d Infantry Regiment plus an engineering company arrive on Efate to build an airfield.