| |
The
Curtiss P-40N Warhawk of 14 th Air Force fighter ace, 1Lt.
Donald S. Lopez.. As
depicted, Lopez's aircraft "Lopes Hope" is assigned to the 23rd
Fighter Group's 75th Fighter Squadron, flying out of Kweilin, China in
July of 1944. (Image by Jim Laurier)
|
|
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF
THE 14TH AIR FORCE
MARCH 10, 1943 - AUGUST 1, 1945
Lt.
General Takahashi, commander of Japanese forces in central China, would
state, that 50 to 70 percent of the effective opposition his forces
faced in China during the Second World War was due to the 14th Air
Force. He would later
state, "Without the air force we could have gone anywhere we
wished." In three years
of combat, Chennault's airmen would destroy at least 2,600 Japanese
aircraft, while losing 500 from all combat causes. They sunk or damaged 2,230,000 tons of Japanese merchant vessels
and 44 naval ships, and are thought to have killed more 66,000 Japanese
soldiers, airmen and sailors. All of this with the smallest and most isolated Allied air
force of the War.
The
14th Air Force's 308th Bomb Group (Heavy), flying the four engine
Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber, has the distinction of being the US
Army Air Forces' most accurate heavy bomb group of the Second World
War.
Striking at Japanese naval and merchant
shipping in Chinese costal waters and far out over the South China Sea,
the Group’s B-24’s would be credited with sinking more Japanese naval
tonnage than any other Army bomb group of the Second World. Another
significant accomplishment of the 308th Bomb Group, was that one of its
aerial gunners, Technical Sergeant Arthur J. Benko, who was one of
several Native American airmen who served in China during the War, was
officially credited as being the highest scoring American aerial gunner
of the Second World. During his tour of duty, Sergeant Benko was
officially credited with the destruction of 16 Japanese fighter aircraft.
|
