Volunteer Group (AVG) took off and began climbing for all the height they could manage in the time available. The Japanese aircraft arrived forty minutes after the first warning. A squadron of twin-engine bombers (62nd Sentai) made for Mingaladon with the slower single-engine fighter-bombers (31st Sentai) and fighters (77th Sentai) swarming behind. The other two squadrons of twin-engine bombers (60th and 98th Sentais) headed towards Rangoon city in a separate stream. A pair of Buffaloes already in the air for a routine patrol was first to attack the bombers heading for Mingaladon. A flight of Tomahawks soon gained sufficient height to attack the incoming Japanese aircraft. From a line astern, the fighters peeled off to rake the bombers with machine gunfire. More Tomahawks joined the battle and another tomahawk managed to force a bomber out of formation trailing smoke. Pilot Chuck Older forced a bomber out of formation trailing smoke. "I gave it a long burst and the bomber suddenly nose down out of the formation with smoke streaming behind. I saw it roll over into almost a vertical dive and disappear below." Another bomber crashed on the waterfront; the gun crew on the American freighter City of Tulsa made a claim, though the falling aircraft was probably already fatally crippled." AVG pilot Hank Gilbert's Tomahawk was caught in the cross-fire of the bombers gunners. The stricken P-40 fell earthwards trailing flame and smoke; Gilbert was the AVG's first combat death. Paul Greene's Tomahawk was also shot up by Japanese fighters. He bailed out when his aircraft went out of control. Greene's parachute proved to be damaged and he was strafed by fighters as he descended rapidly towards the ground. Greene was knocked out when he hit the earth and awoke to find he was looking along the gun barrel of a British soldier. The 62nd Sentai - the Ki-zi Mitsubishi squadron that had bombed Mingaladon - lost five bombers out of fifteen in the raid. Lieutenants Sabe, Niioka, Shimada, Shingansho and Ikura perished with their bombers. All of the remaining bombers of the squadron had suffered damage." Meanwhile, a further two squadrons of Japanese twin-engine bombers had headed towards the center of Rangoon. Six Tomahawks were circling over Syriam, downriver of Rangoon, on the look-out for incoming raiders. Before long a well-drilled formation of green camouflaged twin-engine bombers was sighted approaching at 17,000 feet. The leading formation of this