Diary pages from this date

We drew more cocoa, dried fruit and some tea.

Martha Lewis brought my story back today, she thought some of the words 'rather long for schoolgirls.'  ((Martha 12, in camp with parents and younger sister Rosemarie.))

News of Hong Kong raids.

On November 23 the USAF feinted at Hong Kong before bombing locations in Indochina. Today they return for real:

CHINA AIR TASK FORCE (CATF): 10 B-25s and 20+ P-40s, the largest CATF effort in China to date, hit shipping and harbor installations at Hong Kong, firing warehouses and claiming 2 freighters and numerous barges sunk; a large force of fighters intercept during the return trip but are driven off by the escort; the P-40s and B-25s claim several airplanes shot down.

Source:

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/60th/1942/11-42.html

Issue of tea (1½ lbs.)

Plane on exhibition. Bits which might be anything. People near airfield warned after dusk will be fired on.

((More about the meeting to discuss the distribution of bulk IRC rations.)) The next day I wrote a letter to the Chairman, stating that, in spite of all the motions carried at the meeting, I thought there were a great many people people in these blocks who would welcome the use of a communal store in which to deposit their meat and sugar and asked if such a store could still be made available, as I viewed with alarm the possibility of having to store it in our already crowded room some 160 lbs of sugar and 200 lbs of tinned meat.

Stanley Mason came to see me and asked me if I would take the letter around the blocks and see how many people would append their signatures, as he felt the meeting had not been a representative gathering. This was rather more than I had bargained for, but I set off to do so. I had completed 2 ½ of the 24 flats in these blocks when a new BCC notice was put up. In these flats I had visited, more than 80% of the people signed. However, the new notice rendered unnecessary further efforts on my part, for it was a letter or notice from Gimson saying that the previous recommendation of the BCC had been submitted to the Japanese authorities for their approval.

He stated that, as the representative of the HM Government in HK he felt that he was answerable to the Home Government for the way in which these supplies were dealt with and that he must therefore issue them in the manner that would be most beneficial to the health of this community. He had sought medical advice on this point and this had led to the adoption of the scheme outlined in the previous bulletin. Well, that was that.

Very good news. Sugar 4lbs. Tea 1lb.12oz. Cocoa 1lb 7oz Raisin 1lb. Mixed fruit 2ozs. 3lb. Corned Beef. 1 Tin M & V.

((G.))

[Left page] Since being in Camp I have received HK$17.40 from Canteen profits, HK$5.00 from the Pope, $15.00 from Camp Fund.
¥6.00 from British Shanghai Association. I have paid my debts out of these funds. $16.00 in all.

Fruit is now [Right page] obtainable.
Pumelo
Chinese oranges
Bananas   10 sen each
Papaya

Pencil  $1.60

http://www.usaaf.net/chron/42/nov42.htm says:

(Tenth Air Force):

CHINA AIR TASK FORCE (CATF): 10 B-25s and 20+ P-40s, the largest CATF effort in China to date, hit shipping and harbor installations at Hong Kong, firing warehouses and claiming 2 freighters and numerous barges sunk; a large force of fighters intercept during the return trip but are driven off by the escort; the P-40s and B-25s claim several airplanes shot 

OBJECTIVE: Feint towards Hong Kong to throw off the Japanese and then bomb river shipping and Tien Ho airfield at Canton. 

TIME OVER TARGET: ~10:15 a.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: 22 P-40E and P-40K from the 16^th, 75^th, and 76^th Fighter Squadrons (23^rd Fighter Group) and ten B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group).  All aircraft are from the China Air Task Force (10^th Air Force).  This raid involves more American aircraft than any other raid flown in the Pearl River Delta thus far in the war. 

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: P-40s: Col. Robert L. Scott; Lt. Col. Clinton D. “Casey” Vincent; Major John R. Alison; Major Bruce K. Holloway; Captain Burrall Barnum; Captain Edmund R. Goss; Captain John F. Hampshire; Captain Elmer W. Richardson; 1^st Lt. Jack R. Best; 1^st Lt. H.M. Blackstone; 1^st Lt. Edward H. Calvert; 1^st Lt. Dallas A. Clinger; 1^st Lt. William W. Druwing; 1^st Lt. Charles H. Dubois; 1^st Lt. John D. Lombard; 1^st Lt. Martin W. Lubner; 1^st Lt. Robert A. O’Neill; 1^st Lt. Harold K. Stuart; 1^st Lt. Charles Tucker; 1^st Lt. Heath H. Wayne; 2^nd Lt. George R. Barnes; 2^nd Lt. R.L. Tempest

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Unknown

RESULTS: The merchant vessel Ryokusei Maru (1,907 GRT) is heavily damaged by the B-25s.  Damage to Tien Ho airfield is unknown.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: ~Twelve Ki-27 and Ki-43 fighters are in the air, possibly from the 25^th or 33^rd Sentai, and at least one Ki-45 twin-engine fighter from an unknown unit.

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: American P-40 pilots claim to shoot down at least 17 Ki-43s, 3 Ki-27s, and 1 Ki-45, and to destroy a trimotor transport plane on the ground at White Cloud airfield.  Japanese records do not indicate any pilots lost on this day, but since multiple American pilots reported seeing parachutes during the dogfight, at least one Japanese fighter was shot down.  No American P-40s are lost, but two make forced landings in friendly territory.  All B-25s return safely.

SOURCES:

• Original mission reports 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.
• The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War Two: A Graphic Presentation of the Japanese Naval Organization and List of Combatant and Non-Combatant Vessels Lost or Damaged in the War from the Military History Section of the General Headquarters of the US Far East Command in 1952.
• Japanese Army Fighter Aces, 1931-45, by Ikuhiko Hata, Yasuho Izawa, and Christopher Shores.

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).