Diary pages from this date

"Ship Ahoy" (p. Ian Heath: Brenchley, Ann Kemsley, Marie Barton, Martin O'Connor, Freda Geyer, Cyril Wilcox, W.G.Humphreys, C. Thirlwell, Norman Barron-Sullivan, Bill Webb, Bill Ward, John Luke, Marjorie Cook.

(Day 705 of captivity). We have started yet another month of internment. How long, Oh Lord, how long?

To continue with air raids: a daylight raid followed the night raid at about 11.30 a.m. next morning, while we were in the middle of our meal. As usual, we dashed along to the end room. After much banging everything seemed to have died down when, suddenly, through the gap by Mount Parker, roared a single two engined bomber. It flew down Tytam Bay and seemed to be loosing height (much to my dismay) but as it got further out to sea it turned East-ward and started to climb again. Both raids were reported to have been driven off by AA fire with negligible damage inflicted.

Yesterday, at 3.50 p.m. we were rehearsing ‘Laburnum Grove’ in St Stephen’s ‘lower kitchen’, the roofed over, open drill space that is part of St Stephen’s school. We heard the deep droning of planes and presently another raid was under way. We saw AA shells bursting and then heard the crumps of some extremely heavy detonations. We could hear the wail of a distant air raid siren and then the whine of planes going into a dive, followed by more heavy explosions – the heaviest we have yet heard, I think. We saw two planes high up and making off to the west and a little fighter following. Then two big planes came zooming round the corner of high point and, flying over Stanley Village, made for Tytam Bay and out that way to sea. They were evidently two of the dive bombers. We saw their markings – a white star on a blue circle – and believe this must be the marking of American planes attached to the Chinese forces. We waved excitedly and then were sent scuttling under cover by a couple of rifle shots and a burst of machine gun fire from the direction of the Maryknoll Mission (now used by the gendarmerie or Japanese Militia).  We thought at first, they were firing at us as we are not allowed in the open during a raid, but they must have been having a potshot at the planes. All seemed to have quietened down, when, suddenly, there was a tremendous explosion which echoed and reverberated amongst the hills and presently, over our ridge, rose a vast column of white smoke or vapour which gradually blew away. It sounded like an ammunition dump or something.

Today we heard (unofficially) that the Taikoo Docks and Kowloon Docks had been heavily bombed and that a cargo ship had received a direct hit and had simply blown up. Perhaps it was a munition ship which had blown up after catching fire, or perhaps the delayed explosion was from a time bomb. Any way, it was most exciting. Then at about 5.30 p.m. that same afternoon, either nine or ten planes sailed in to deliver another attack (probably the same ten coming back with another load of bombs) and again our meal was interrupted. This time the explosions were much more distant and were over the New Territories somewhere.

OBJECTIVE: Bomb the Kowloon shipyards (most likely the HK & Whampoa dockyard)

TIME OVER TARGET: ~12:30 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Eight P-40s from the 74^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group) escort seven B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group) and an unknown number of B-25s from the 1^st Bomb Group of the Chinese American Composite Wing. 

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• P-40s: Colonel Rouse; Major Denny; Captain Bell; Captain Jones; Lt. Lundy; Lt. Lee; 1^st Lt. Richard Mauritson; 2^nd Lt. Altheus B. Jarmon
• B-25s (11^th BS):
  • B-25 #46: 1^st Lt. William A. Brenner; 2^nd Lt. Delwyn F. Ritzdorf; 2^nd Lt. Richard W. Sherman; Staff Sgt. Ray T. Hamilton; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker
  • B-25 #56: 1^st Lt. Robert A. Nice; 2^nd Lt. Thomas H. Anderson; 2^nd Lt. Robert B. Fischborn; Staff Sgt. Eugene E. Banzhof; Sgt. Jean W. Walburn
  • B-25 #55: 2^nd Lt. Dow J. Richter; 2^nd Lt. John T. Schmidt; 2^nd Lt. Gerald M. O’Day; Sgt. Walter P. White; Sgt. Frederick T. Kaveney
  • B-25 #57: 1^st Lt. Carl J. LaValle; 2^nd Lt. Richard L. Edwards; 1^st Lt. William H.C. White; Staff Sgt. Robert A. Petrucelli; Sgt. Harold J. Coleman; Corporal Carl Cannon
  • B-25 #68: 1^st Lt. LeRoy J. Fontaine; 2^nd Lt. Harold E. Sparhawk; 1^st Lt. Seaborn V. Howard; Staff Sgt. Marino R. Galluzzo; Staff Sgt. Arthur B. Smith
  • B-25 #79: 2^nd Lt. Edward J. Pawlowski; 2^nd Lt. Orrin G. Zebarth; 1^st Lt. Paul J. Diekmann; Staff Sgt. Robert C. Appleby; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Steiner
  • B-25 #92: Lt. Col. Joseph B. Wells; Captain Loren S. Nickels; 2^nd Lt. Jack H. Potter; 2^nd Lt. Charles A. Lutton; 2^nd Lt. Herbert I. Robinson; Sgt. Joe D. Josserand; Staff Sgt. Harry L. Veale; Corporal Arbun K. Griffen

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

RESULTS: Due to heavy cloud cover the bomber crews are unable to bomb the target and return all bombs to Kweilin

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None

SOURCES: Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

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).

Late in the afternoon Emily Hahn is finally allowed to leave the Grispsholm. The only person left to meet her is a friend of her brother-in-law, who drives her to her sister Helen's downtown apartment where she's reunited with Carola, who'd been taken home by Helen when she began to cry uncontrollably during Hahn's interrogation.

The Canadian train arrives in Montreal. Two-Gun Cohen allows a Paramount newsreel reporter to interview him briefly but refuses to say anything about conditions in Stanley 'because any remark may influence the situation of people who are still prisoners'.

Sources:

Hahn: Ken Cuthberston, Nobody Said Not To Go, 1998, 279-280

Cohen: Daniel S. Levy, Two-Gun Cohen: An Autobiography, 1997, Kindle Edition, Location, 5583

Two alarms afternoon.

Drizzly.

Concert at St Steph’s a flop. Saw Steve after.

Targets hit yesterday? Q.M.Hosp. now used as barracks, Whitfield Barracks, Mt. Parker, 2 cruiser & a freighter. Jap paper makes light of it all as usual.