Fighter Sweep to Meiktila
Twenty P-38 Lightning’s of the 459th Fighter Squadron left their base at Chittagong (present-day Bangladesh) for a fighter sweep against Japanese Army positions in Meiktila, Burma (Myanmar) on June 6, 1944. Two of the American fighters were downed.
Second Lieutenant William C. Baumeister, Jr., reported that he talked to one of the missing, Captain Walter F. Duke, on “several occasions” during the mission via radio:
Lieutenant Baumeister also witnessed the plane piloted by 1st...