soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Cubdriver wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:23:56 -0500, Bill Shatzer
> wrote:

>>>The fate of the 77th Sentai, an army fighter group, is instructive.
>>>When the 77th lost its last aircraft, the pilots and ground crews were
>>>given rifles and used as footsoldiers. There were almost no survivors.

>>How is that different than the fate of the American pilots at Bataan?

> Um, what fighter squadrons were stationed on Bataan?

The remnants of the 21st Pursuit Squadron after they were ordered to
vacate Clark Field and transferred to Cabcaben and Mariveles.

More significantly, approximately 1,000 members of the 24th PG and the
19th BG were evacuated to Bataan, reconstituted as the 1st Provisional
Air Corps Regiment, handed Springfields, and assigned to the ground
defenses.

These were mostly ground and maintenance personnel but quite a few
pilots and air crew ended up in the 1st PACR as well. And ultimately
joined their infantry commrades on the infamous Death March.

Cheers,