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Part 18
AIR OPERATIONS, OCTOBER-DECEMBER.
35. With the improvement of the weather after the monsoon, a systematic air offensive was begun against the enemy airfields and communications in Burma, to the extent that our resources allowed. Attacks were made both by day and night and had undoubtedly very considerable effect. The air force also provided direct support for the Army in Arakan and Assam; defended by fighters Calcutta, Chittagong and other vulnerable points; protected shipping in the Bay of Bengal; carried out visual and photographic reconnaissance; and dropped large quantities of supplies in the Chin hills for the local troops, at Sumprabum for the Kachin levies and for the garrison of Fort Hertz.
The Japanese air force showed only sporadic activity. Between the 25th and 28th October the enemy made a series of heavy raids on airfields in the Dinjan area which the Americans had lately taken over. One of these caused considerable damage, since the warning system proved ineffective. In December, the enemy attacked our forward airfields in the Fenny and Chittagong areas and the docks at Chittagong; he caused little damage. At the end of the year he made a series of small attacks by night on Calcutta. These did little damage but caused an exodus of labour.
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