Danny
... Interesting (as always). I had a look through Arthur's log book and noted that of the 108 operations he conducted over Burma, 4 were aborted in the air due to Jap aircraft being reported in the target area; on one occasion they saw 'bandits' heading in a different direction; and another occasion Arthur encountered Jap Oscars while in a 'Spitfire' (and brought one down).
A note at the end of March '44 states: 'Over 336 sorties carried out by Japanese fighters and bombers over N. Burma front, during last fortnight.' So, as you say, the Japanese were around but didn't make a concerted effort to protect key targets from Allied bombers (for whatever reason).
(Above: Japanese Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter. School girls wave-off a kamikaze.)
I was interested, recently, to play the tape of his interview at the Imperial War Museum. Usuallly he talked with an air of nonchalance about his shooting down of the Oscar. On the tape, he was more candid. He was using the squadron's weather recce Spitfire to check the weather before the squadron took off on an operation. This was to avoid wasted fuel and aircraft hours if the cloud was impossible. He had dived through heavy cloud down to 4000' at which point he saw two Oscars 1500' above him. In the tape he admitted that he reacted as any bomber pilot might and scuttled for cloud cover. On coming out a few moments later, there was a single Oscar in front of him. He said '
Taking my courage in both hands... baring in mind I was a bomber pilot... I closed in'. Apparently he made the beginner's mistake of opening fire when too far away and consequently missed. He then got closer and fired again, seeing cannon shells strike home. Bits flew off the plane, which then turned on it's back and dived vertically into cloud over the mountain tops. He was at first credited with a 'probable kill', but this was later changed to 'confirmed' after an artillery unit confirmed the destruction of the Oscar.
This particular (taped) account was a rare instance of his talking frankly about his emotions. Invariably he was blase about his experiences, as if he was reluctant to admit to moments of 'weakness'. (Maybe that's a military man's thing?) But then he didn't have the skilled raconteur's gift of capturing the audience's imagination by fully sharing the moment. You Danny, of course, have that gift, as your many descriptions reveal. Most notably, the story of the loss of your aircraft. (page 8, post 154)