Big Bang in Burma by Roy Grinnell

Big Bang in Burma depicts the dramatic aerial combat of the 1st Air Commandos, Combat Mission 48, on April 23, 1944, Hailakandi to Indaw, Burma, where they bombed Japanese troop concentration and strafed a village. According to B-25 Crew Chief and Top Turret Gunner, Chuck Baisden, "As soon as the fighters finished and got altitude above us, R.T. Smith ordered two flights into our gunnery pattern, and we commenced strafing the village. Our .75 mm shells tore into the thatched buildings and literally exploded them into a thousand pieces. I would hear the heavy rattle of our six. 50 machine guns and the dull thud and jolt of our cannon, and a thousand yards away a hut (basha) would explode in a red flash and black smoke. I could see our tracers hitting the ground and ricocheting into the air. They appeared to eat their way into a basha. We averaged three bursts of machine gun fire and three cannon shells per run."