Mingaladon airfield and the downtown districts of Rangoon were to be the principal targets; the Shwedagon Pagoda would provide an excellent navigation mark from the air.

The Ki-30 was a light bomber and carried a 600-pound bomb; for armament, it mounted one forward-firing fixed machine gun, and a rear-gunner sat behind the pilot under a greenhouse type canopy.

By the time they arrived over Rangoon, there were few clouds in the air and a light breeze blew from the south, thus allowing them to visually strike at the selected targets.

A dozen Curtiss Tomahawks and fifteen Brewster Buffalos of the Royal Air Force and the American Volunteer Group (AVG) took off and began climbing for all the height they could manage in the time available.

Another bomber crashed on the waterfront; the gun crew on the American freighter City of Tulsa made a claim, though the falling aircraft was probably already fatally crippled."

Paul Greene bailed out when his Tomahawk went out of control; he was knocked out when he hit the earth and awoke to find he was looking along the gun barrel of a British soldier.

The leading formation of this wave comprised eighteen bombers of the 98th Sentai; the squadron was commanded by Colonel Shigeki Usui.

The body of a Japanese airman was later recovered beneath the folds of a parachute holding a grenade in the frozen claw of his hand.

The 62nd Sentai bombed the Mingaladon airfield, damaging a number of aircraft, the operations room, the hangar, and fuel tanks.

High-explosive and incendiary bombs leveled over three-fifths of the wooden-buildings and incinerated many residents; flying glass and collapsing houses caused a stampede that trampled underfoot those who had fallen.

The raid shocked the public and caused an influx refugees as many of them fled into the surrounding jungles and some of them head north towards Prome in hopes for safety from Japanese air attack.