Tomahawks near the Burma China border on May 28, 1942.
Perhaps I should start off with a real bang, that first combat action over Rangoon, Burma, on the 23rd of December 1941, barely two weeks after the disaster of Pearl Harbor. I could begin by describing how it felt when I got that first glimpse of the enemy, and knew that within a couple of minutes I would get my first taste of war in the air. I was in a flight of seven P-40s patrolling an area just east of Rangoon, with another flight of seven a couple of miles to the north. All eyes were nervously scanning the skies to the east; the British ground radar, not noted for its reliability of late, had reported a large number of enemy planes approaching from that direction, no doubt from bases in Thailand. Eventually one of us would spot them and then, following the standard reporting procedure and using code words prescribed by our limited training during the preceding weeks, would calmly announce his discovery over the radio. We would hear someone say something like, "Red Leader from Red Four, many Bandits at two o'clock low." Instead, a voice suddenly screamed, "Hey, Mac! I see the bastards!...off to the right and a little below us, a whole slew of 'em"
-- From Tale of a Tiger by R.T. Smith