14. Mingaladon Airfield

We are leaving Myanmar today, after five weeks of lobbying the government, our spirits low and our goal seemingly more remote than ever. I stared dejectedly out the departure gate windows at the runway of Yangon International Airport. I could see the exact spot we planned to excavate, less than a quarter mile away. So close yet so far! I tried to picture in my mind’s eye what the airfield must have looked like seventy years ago, before the construction of the modern runway and terminal. Mingaladon Airfield – as it was then called – had been one of the key airfields for the RAF’s defence of Southern Burma. In 1941, there were three intersecting runways that formed a giant triangle: the ENW-WSW runway (1320 yards), the WNW-ESE Runway (1250 yards), and the NNN-SSE runway (1400 yards). These are all long gone, as are the turnabouts, taxi-ways, dispersal areas, munitions depots, barracks and other military structures. One of the few reminders of the old runways are the 10 foot long sections of Marsden Matting one sees around Yangon – mostly incorporated into fences. Marsden Matting is also known as PSP, Pierced Steel Plate.  This material consists of perforated steel sheets with hooks on the long edge for slotting together with neighbouring sections. More than 2 million tons of it was manufactured and it was the material of choice for military engineers such as the RAF and the US Seabees wanting to build temporary runways during World War Two.

Mingaladon Airfield was home to both the RAF and the American Volunteer Group (AVG), which was created by Roosevelt in April 1941 to allow American military pilots to resign their commissions and fight for China. According to Alan Warren, author of Burma 1942, members of the AVG would be allowed to rejoin U.S. forces without loss of seniority after one year’s service. The “Flying Tigers”, as they were soon named, were equipped with P-40 B Tomahawks which sported rows of shark’s teeth as nose art and the blue and white star of Nationalist China. The AVG was stationed at Mingaladon and other airfields in Southern Burma, as well as bases in China. The first squadron arrived in September with sixteen Buffalo aircraft. The 3^rd squadron of the AVG – the “Hell’s Angels” – arrived at Mingaladon on December 12 with eighteen Tomahawks. The Japanese arrived on December 23-25, 1941. A squadron of twin-engine bombers attacked the airfield, killing 17 men, blowing up the operations room, cratering the runway, and destroying many aircraft on the ground. American Buffalo and Tomahawks shot down five of the attacking fifteen bombers. A second wave of bombers bombed downtown Rangoon, flattening buildings and killing more than a thousand civilians. It was the opening salvo in a brutal campaign that would last four years.

The RAF and AVG, vastly out-numbered by the JAAF (Imperial Japanese Army Air Force), would continue to contest the skies of Southern Burma from Mingaladon throughout January and February 1942, until the rapid advance of Japanese ground forces compelled the Allies to retreat from Rangoon and Mingaladon Airfield in early March. Surviving Allied planes from the RAF and AVG were relocated to Magwe Airfield 300 miles to the North. The Japanese quickly occupied Mingaladon, Moulemain, and Pegu Airfields and soon deployed a front-line strength of 270 aircraft. Magwe Airfield did not long remain in British hands. As Warren notes, heavy raids by the Japanese on March 22^nd – with 85 planes in the morning, and 94 aircraft in the afternoon, damaged the airfield beyond repair and forced the remaining airworthy fighters and bombers to depart for bases in Northern Burma or Akyab. The Japanese had attained air superiority in Burma, an advantage they would retain well into 1944. Mingaladon Airfield would remain in Japanese hands for four long years.

Our wait would not be nearly so long, but August and September passed while we awaited word from Naypyidaw on the fate of our proposal. David would return to Myanmar for three weeks in August, for meetings with our Burmese business partners and various government officials. While we waited, the Wargaming team decided to gamble that the project would go forward, and advanced the funds to do archival research, as well as shoot interviews for the documentary in London and in Leeds, since we needed to have these interviews “in the can” before we begin excavations. We made plans to film in the UK from September 29-October 5.