Parafragmentation Bombs
Parafragmentation bombs spill over Jefman Airfield in early 1944. While low-level raids such as this tore grounded Japanese aircraft and personnel to pieces, the Fifth's heavies took it upon themselves to destroy the enemy runways, thus depriving the Japanese of any opportunity to fly in replacements. Destruction was relatively effective, as the heavies' thousand?pounders ruptured deep craters into soft tropical earth. Such destruction produced an unforeseen side?effect, overlooked in initial Allied evaluations of destruction to enemy units, and one which was not fully appreciated until after the war. The craters quickly filled with water and became stagnant, thus making them efficient breeding grounds for mosquitoes. This hygiene factor, initially dismissed by Japanese high command as being rather prosaic, soon proved otherwise. By the time it had become glaringly evident that losses to tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue fever were hindering aerial operations as much as American bombings, it was too late. Allied airfields by comparison were swept clean and regularly subjected to extensive disinfectant programs