Diary pages from this date

Bulk stuff was allowed out of Godowns today and is stored in Block 5, but we aren't allowed to have it until BCC have either won the Japs over to their (BCC's) way of distribution ie. 2 lbs sugar per month instead of 3, and 6 tins per month instead of 8 each.

Olive received a pair of thick black shoes from the Welfare today - they haven't got my size.

Dr Erooga said that 'Sigmund' whom we met at Kay Grant's birthday 2 years ago, was killed here at Stanley ((during the war; I don't remember his surname)).

Issued with welfare egg & 1pr. of shoes.

((Charter continues describing the meeting about the bulk IRC rations, and the point that food should be all be distributed immediately rather than held centrally.)) This was carried in spite of the warning given by the Chairman that the food (especially the sugar) stored in our already crowded rooms would only encourage ants, cockroaches etc.  The deplorable part about the meeting – or rather about the majority of those that attended it – was the complete lack of faith that these people had, or have, in their fellow men.

“What guarantee have we that once the food goes into a communal store we shall ever get our fair share of it”? -  was one of the questions asked.

“How do we know the store will not be broken into and looted”? - was another. They seemed to forget that it would probably be easier to steal it from the rooms themselves during certain times of the day.

Well, the Chairman and Wittenbach (who was on the BCC sub Committee of 3 who drew up the suggested scheme for food distribution) promised to put forward this resolution to the BCC, but added that they felt it was unlikely to be approved by the Japanese. Wittenbach pointed out earlier in the meeting that most of the bulk food had come from communities in the British Empire who were themselves being rationed and that we therefore were under still a greater moral obligation to use this food to the best possible advantage and ration ourselves as a community instead of just leaving the matter to the conscience of the individual. The majority of people would be wise and economical but a few might eat the whole lot in a couple of months: thinking, if starvation conditions returned, the wise and frugal would feel bound to contribute something to the foolish and prodigal. “No, let them starve” was what a number of people seemed to think: justifiable in it’s way, but a hard attitude to adopt. Needless to say, the meeting showed a hostile attitude to the committee.

One part that particularly disgusted me was a shout from several people of, “They’re jolly well better off than we are,” when Wittenbach referred to the people at home who were rationed and yet sent the food. I left the meeting feeling disgusted with the spirit of some of my fellow countrymen. Thank God they are in the minority here. I do not want to discriminate between classes, but most of these grabbers are the type of wretched ‘white’ who would be nobody at home, but coming to the East reaches a far higher level of living than he would do otherwise, he becomes selfish, greedy and entirely self centered, and probably does not rise in the social scale as he thinks he should and becomes overbearing and self assertive (collectively) because of an inferiority complex. One sees many of these people out here and their behaviour particularly to the Chinese, makes you blush for them and your country which, unfortunately, they represent to many Chinese and Asiatics. However, I digress.

Fine day.

Air patrols.

News good. Remainder of parcels out etc.

Heard that Ps of W are not faring so well in Sham Shui Po.

((G.))

OBJECTIVE: Bomb river shipping (B-25s) and an aircraft assembly factory (P-40s) at Canton

TIME OVER TARGET: ~Noon

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Seventeen P-40s from the 16^th and 76^th Fighter Squadrons (23^rd Fighter Group) and six B-25s from 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group).  All aircraft are from the China Air Task Force (10th Air Force).

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: P-40s: Lt. Col. Clinton D. “Casey” Vincent; Major George W. Hazlett; Major Bruce K. Holloway; Captain Edmund R. Goss; 1^st Lt. Donald D. Bryant; 1^st Lt. W.S. Butler; 1^st Lt. L.H. Couch;  1^st Lt. Patrick H. Daniels; 1^st Lt. Charles H. Dubois; 1^st Lt. Martin W. Lubner; 1^st Lt. Robert A. O’Neill; 1^st Lt. Harold K. Stuart; 1^st Lt. J.O. Wellborn; 2^nd Lt. L.E. Hay; 2^nd Lt. George V. Pyles

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: The B-25s carry a mix of 100-pound and 500-pound general purpose bombs as well as 17-kg fragmentation bombs.  Four P-40s carry six 35-pound fragmentation bombs apiece for dive-bombing.  The other thirteen P-40s function as escorts armed with guns only.

RESULTS: Hits and near misses are claimed on two river steamers east of Canton.  One of these may have been the gunboat IJNS Suma (formerly HMS Moth), which a BAAG report claimed was strafed, killing the executive officer and injuring ten members of the crew.  Some hits on the aircraft factory are also claimed.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Several Ki-27s from an unknown unit are engaged, and P-40 pilots claim to shoot down at least one and possibly two.

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: Lt. Patrick H. Daniels is killed when his P-40 explodes in midair while dive-bombing.  He is the first American airman to die in a mission over Canton.  A second P-40 makes a forced landing in friendly territory.

SOURCES: Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.  I could not locate the relevant mission report for the B-25s in the archives, however.  Information on the IJNS Suma comes from the BAAG’s Waichow Intelligence Summary no. 15, December 30, 1942.

Information compiled by Steven K. Bailey, author of Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942-1945 (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2019).