<text id=00he1009><title>On the Road to Mandalay</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>On the Road to Mandalay</hdr><body>
<p>The Tenth Air Force seems to have been expected to handle the complete air situation in the China-India-Burma theater. It set up shop in New Delhi in May 1942, and was told to defend Burma, assist the British in the defense of India, and protect the air route from India to China.
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<p>To do that massive mission, Tenth had almost no air strength. Its heavy bombers had been taken away and sent to the Middle East in June 1942, along with its first commander, a dozen badly needed transports, and the accoutrements of a headquarters. By December that year, Tenth AF had all of 32 heavy bombers on its roster, with 10 of them non-operational; 43 medium bombers; and 184 fighters, of which 24 were useless for combat.
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<p>What it lacked in equipment, the Tenth made up for in effort. It began the airlift to China over the Hump, with all the problems that mission entailed. It spun off two Air Task Forces, one to China and the other to India. It was primarily an interdiction force, hitting tactical targets such as shipping, port facilities, maintenance and repair yards for locomotives, and railroad bridges and junctions. Its B-24s bombed Rangoon's docks and port facilities regularly, flying unescorted missions until some P-38s arrived as new equipment. The missions were about 1,500 miles (2,410 km) round trip, considerably farther than the distance from British bases to Berlin and back.
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<p>The Tenth participated in a joint air offensive in late November 1943, with the RAF and a heavy bomb group detached from Chennault's Fourteenth AF. The results were only mediocre, but the crews gained back some confidence in two attacks on Bangkok on 19 and 23 December. The 2,000-mile (3,220-km) round trips took 14 hours, much of it at night, but the bombs hit the docks and there were no losses among the heavies.
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<p>Eastern Air Command was formed on 15 December 1943, from the Tenth AF and the RAF's Bengal Command, merging Tenth AF units into two new air forces: Strategic and Third Tactical. Like so many of the multi-service organizations that flourished during the war years for political reasons, EAC had shortcomings. It was reorganized on 20 June 1944, and the Tenth again became a separate combat command, one of six component units of the new EAC. With one fighter group and one fighter-bomber group, plus supporting troop carrier and combat cargo squadrons, the Tenth moved into the upper Assam valley to assist Stilwell's drive to retake Burma. He brought off his remarkable victory in large measure because of Tenth AF support. The Burma campaign ended on 3 May 1945.
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<p>The Tenth was transferred to China soon after, opening headquarters at Kunming on 23 July, with hardly two weeks remaining in World War II.
