The 81st entered combat on 16 April 1944 when it dispatched 12 B-25s in an attack upon railway sidings and a Japanese supply dump at Mogaung, Burma.
The species, A. djijidae, was named in memory of a young girl from Mogaung village in central Myanmar.
Mogaung |
The Japanese 18th Division faced the American and Chinese Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) under Lieutenant General Daniel Isom Sultan advancing south from Myitkyina and Mogaung which the Allies had secured in 1944, while the Japanese 56th Division faced the large Chinese Yunnan armies led by Wei Lihuang.
By the mid-1490s, the Shan states of Mohnyin, Mogaung, Momeik and Kale (Kalay) had also broken away, and begun raiding northern Ava territories.
The Shan forces then crossed the river, sacked the city of Pinya, and brought Narathu to Mogaung as prisoner.
Casualties had been heavy and Calvert decided to move to "Blackpool", a new defensive perimeter, further north between Mawlu and Mogaung, before they could get there, Blackpool fell and Calvert learnt that the Chinese and Americans were approaching Myitkyina, receiving orders that his brigade was to attack Mogaung.
Uzana II came to the Pinya throne after the Shan raiders from Mogaung had successfully sacked both Sagaing and Pinya, the capitals of two main kingdoms in central Burma.