jolihokistix (#10582),
Your mother's "sharks" would almost certainly have been "Oscars". Why the Japanese Army Command only used these excellent fighters on these "hit and run" ground raids, instead of putting them up in the sky (where they would've been bad news to us, among others), is one of the mysteries of that conflict.
Whereabouts in Burma was this ? Was she on the Long March North from Malaya ? Did they catch her, or was she able to get to the (relative) safety of India ? There is a good story there which needs the telling.
I was once under ground attack by one of these. A party from the sqdn had been invited over to see a primitive Radar installation which had been set up on a nearby airstrip. We marvelled at this new magic, and stood in awe of the magician, who confidently assured us that there was no air traffic at all within thirty miles.
We thanked him for the hospitality, strolled leisurely out into the sunshine to our truck - and were promptly set upon by a pair of these marauding "Oscars". Standing still did not seem a good option; we dived into a nearby waterlogged ditch and kept our heads down.
There did not seem to be any aimed fire, they just flew low down the strip spraying bullets willy-nilly. But as the resident Spitfires were all well dispersed in the trees, and they didn't bother with our truck, no harm was done. After the one firing pass, they went off somewhere else.
We warily crawled out of the ditch, and spent the next ten minutes de-leeching each other (by getting out the fags and applying the hot end to the leech's bum) They don't like it and drop off. Then we went back, with our trust in the magician and his magic somewhat diminished.
Danny.