By early May 1945, Allied forces in Europe were nearing victory, and the balance of power was shifting in China. The Battle of Chihkiang, in which the Chinese-American Composite Wing’s 5^th Fighter Group and 3^rd and 4^th Bomb Squadrons played a decisive role, proved to be the turning point of the war in China. Even as the war neared an end, replacements were being sent to the China Theater. Maj. Clarence H. (“Hank”) Drake was attached as a B-25 pilot in late April and flew missions with the 3^rd Bomb Squadron into June. On Drake’s first combat mission, he feared that enemy flak might bring down the plane, so he asked the pilot, “What do we do?”  1Lt. Willard G. Ilefeldt calmly replied, “Why, we just fly on through.”

After the loss of the 14^th Air Force base at Laohokow, Chihkiang (now Zhijiang) became the most easterly of the bases operated by the 14^th Air Force. On April 10, 1945, the Japanese initiated an offensive that claimed the full attention of the 3^rd and 4^th Bomb Squadrons and the 5^th Fighter Group stationed at Chihkiang. So successful was the opposition against enemy targets in the Chihkiang Campaign that it proved to be the last major offensive by the Japanese in China. Even as life-or-death operations were being conducted, the daily business of the squadron went on. “All the men who have been overseas for a rather long time, or those who seem to need a little diversion and rest, are being sent to Chengtu, several at a time, to enjoy the ‘almost stateside’ atmosphere, the good ‘American’ food, and the almost white creatures of feminine pulchritude.” Five 3^rd Bomb Squadron enlisted men were the next to be sent in late April.