PBY Catalina - the First Casualty of the Pacific War
As posted by Wiley, a PBY was shot down after locating & reporting the Japanese invasion fleet off the Thai coast,enroute to Kota Bahru.This incident occured on the 7th December (USA date/time) some hours before the Pearl Harbour attack. As Wiley surmised this was the first casualty of the Pacific war.
The PBY was from RAF 205 Sqn and the sortie was launched after a previous PBY sent on the same task failed to return. It is uncertain as to the fate of the first acft.
The crew may well have been RAAF, as an account of the incident is mentioned in the official RAAF history.
I may have more on this operation in a week or so.