DINJAN KITTYHAWK (10TH AIR FORCE)
Ground Crew members of the 51st Fighter Group’s 26th Fighter Squadron are seen with one of the unit’s Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawks at Dinjan in eastern India’s Assam Valley. At his point in the War, the 26th Fighter Squadron was operating from the Assam Valley as part of the 10th Air Force, initially assigned to defending the western end of the “Hump” Airlift. However, by the beginning of 1943, the 26th Fighter Squadron and its sister unit, the 25th Fighter Squadron began supporting Allied ground operation in Northern Burma, striking bridges, trains, supply dumps and other key Japanese Army instalations, including its airfields at Myitkyina and Lashio.
On September 12, 1942, the 51st Fighter Group was transferred to the 14th Air Force for service in China, and the 25th and 26th Fighter Squadrons joined the 51st Fighter Group’s 16th Fighter Squadron which was the Group’s third original fighter squadron, which had been transferred to China and assigned to the China Air Task Force’s 23rd Fighter Group on June 22, 1942.
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