ORDER
To: Flight Lieutenant Paine

1. You are appointed officer I/C rear party
PAM KHAN

2. The following personnel will remain:

Sgt Turton
Sgt Field
F/Sgt Osborne
LAC Bell
Cpl. Constable
LAC. Austin
LAC. Smith
AC. Ward
Cpl. Heath
AC. Kilwin
Sgt. Stafford

3. You will provide and refuelling that may be required.

4 Parties to collect petrol will be sent from 109 as long as circumstances permit.

5. You will move at your own discretion if situation warrants, first informing Burwing Headquarters by wireless, and demolishing equipment.

6. On receipt of code word SCRAM you will destroy any remaining stocks and equipment and proceed to MYTCHINA.

Squadron Leader
Senior Administrative Officer
Royal Air Force in BURMA

Given at PAMKHAN
On the
30th April 1942

To Air Commodore
From F/lt H S Paine

Report

Sir
I beg to report that on the morning of 1/5/42 Burwing split into two parties - one party under W/C Devitt to proceed to Myitkyina en route for India and the main party under G/Capt. Singer en route for on the main Burma road en route for China.
As O/C rear party I was detailed to remain at Pam Khan (copy of orders attached).
The departure of Burwing appeared to be the signal for the firing of Pam Khan and every building around us was burning. I immediately ordered all clothing and equipment left behind by Burwing to be collected and burnt.
The AVG (1st American Volunteer Group) had already evacuated and the CAMCO factory was already burning.
During the night of the 1/5/42 - We were visited by Major O'Malley A.L.O (Air Liason Officer) attached to Burwing who gave me reassuring reports of the situation.
On the morning of the 2/5/42 F/O Durnford Wood took off in his Hurricane with the intention of calling at Myitkyina if weather conditions allowed.
The aerodrome at haywing was still unserviceable owing to the continuous rain so I ordered the unserviceable planes to be burnt. A large quantity of CAMCO oil was found, so this was destroyed.
At 05.00 hrs on the 3/5/42 I saw two lorries being driven up to the fort, so I aroused the men and went over to the fort to investigate. The lorries contained CAMCO workers and were driven by BOR's from 17 squadron who were attached to the AVG's They were Sgt Boylan, Cpl Brighton. Lac Strinder and Ac Wardrope. They said they had orders to rejoin the AVG and in any case could not leave the lorries as none of the natives could drive. I allowed them to proceed into china.
Soon after I heard bursts of Machine gun fire and saw many riderless cavalry horses galloping in our direction. I immediately gave orders to destroy the remaining serviceable plane - to fire all petrol stocks, unserviceable vehicles and buildings.
Although all preparations had been made, the aerodrome was so far away and the petrol so widely dispersed that we were not ready to move off until 0800 hrs.
Before we had gone half a mile towards the cross road at NAMKAM we saw three Indian cavalry who said they were going to Bhamo. I told them they were on the wrong road and cannot replace their steps to Namkam. They told me that this was impossible as the Japs were already in possession of Namkam and had 25 tanks already over the bridge 3 miles away. I decided that it was too late to retreat and ordered to convoy to proceed and get through Namkam if possible.
Machine gun fire had died down and we reached the cross roads and turned up the road to Bhamo without further incident.
We reached Bhamo at 12.30 where we stayed for 1 hour for food.
When we left, Bhamo was burning fiercely and the road was packed with evacuees.
From Bhamo onwards the journey was extremely difficult - the evacuees were too much of a hurry to unload their vehicles before going over the fragile bamboo bridges so many of them had to be repaired many times before our turn came to go over.
We lost our lorry when it went through a bridge into the river and from then on the men had to cling on to the sides of a petrol bowser that I had brought as a second vehicle.
All transport was left 20 miles south of Myitkyina where the river ferry had sunk and the personnel swam across the river supported by a bamboo raft.
We arrived at Myitkyina at 05.30hrs on 5/5/42 and reported to RAF HQ.
We then proceeded to the aerodrome where we organised the planes as they arrived and trying to keep some order among the civil evacuees.
The medical authorities were especially grateful for our help especially when they heard all the ranks refuse to passage in a plane until all the wounded had been evacuated.
At about 11.00 the next morning a S/Ldr pilot ordered me and my party to board his plane. Just before the plane was airborne a bomb exploded under the port wing and rendered the plane unserviceable. The only other plane in the aerodrome was machine gunned and out of action.
We got all the wounded out of the planes before another Jap machine appeared and set fire to the plane that had not been bombed.
The dead were then buried in bomb craters on the aerodrome and the aerodrome was repaired.
A force of 7 aeroplanes came over and bombed and machine gunned the aerodrome in the afternoon but no further damage was done to the runway.
Just before dusk another plane landed and evacuated the remaining wounded and the whole of the RAF personnel in Myitkyina.
The task of demolishing LOYWING and our subsequent evacuation could not have been bought to a successful conclusion without the courageous unthinking efforts of F/Sgt Osborne, Sgt Turton, Sgt Field who despite lack of sleep, worked unceasingly in helping the wounded in Myitkyina aerodrome.