Notes:
24/12/43 - Haircut -.60
4th - School Fees 4.-
Supporting information:
Diary pages from this date
C. of E. Nativity play
Issue of ¥15 / 2ozs. tea / 1 ¼ oz. margarine / tin c. beef for 4 / tin small ???((unclear)) for 4
Mrs Hearson’s/Harrison’s [?] bed. ((Probably Mrs Harrison, as she's been mentioned by R E Jones a couple of times before in his diary.))
Canteen tab 62.
Free tea 2oz & Margarine 1.2oz issued. 4 cigs.
Chopped wood for Mary.
Took part in Nativity Play at St. Stephens pm. With Steve after.
Plate of veg & rice balls. OK too.
Significance attached to Jap treatment of Dr. Farr & one patient, the gift of beans etc.
OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton
TIME OVER TARGET: ~12:55 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:
- Eighteen B-24s from the 373rd, 374th, and 425th Bomb Squadrons (308th Heavy Bomb Group)
- Unknown number of P-40s from the 74th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
- Three P-51s and one P-40 from the 76th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
- Unknown number of P-40Ns from 28th Provisional Fighter Squadron (Chinese American Composition Wing)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:
- P-40s (28th PFS): Major Eugene Strickland; Captain Cheng; Lt. C.Y. Meng; Lt. Y.H. Chao; Lt. S.L. Chow; Lt. Frank Smiley; Lt. Art Skidmore
- P-40s (74th FS): Lt. Virgil A. Butler
- P-40s (76th FS): 1st Lt. Harry G. Zavakos
- P-51s (76th FS): Captain Lee Manbeck; Lt. Boylan; Lt. Butler
- B-24 #246: Staff Sgt. Joe Duran; Staff Sgt. Earl L. Smith; Staff Sgt. Frederick D. Day
- B-24 #247: Tech Sgt. Sydney H. McPherson
- B-24 #249: Sgt. F.G. Blair; Staff Sgt. Ben A. Weischman
- B-24 #252: Tech Sgt. John E. Beaudoin, Jr.; Staff Sgt. Marvin D. Gray
- B-24 #257: Staff Sgt. Leonard Davenport; Staff Sgt. Herman Peterson; Staff Sgt. Howard A. Buchman; Sgt. Clarence J. King
- B-24 #262: Staff Sgt. Clemon V. Eaton
- B-24 #286: Staff Sgt. Arthur Regal, Jr.; Staff Sgt. John Coughlin; Staff Sgt. Clifford T. Hamilton; Staff Sgt. W.S. Polchlopek; Staff Sgt. Cecil L. Olson
- B-24 #309: Tech Sgt. LeRoy C. Jordon; Staff Sgt. Charles V. Dumato; Tech Sgt. Robert O. Wafle
- B-24 #317: Staff Sgt. Barton W. Owens; Tech Sgt. Robert Berman; Staff Sgt. John Orovecz
- B-24 #320: Staff Sgt. Roy D. Smith
- B-24 #324: Sgt. Beckman Winecoff
- B-24 #329: 1st Lt. Charles M. Swanson; 2nd Lt. H.W. Linihan; 2nd Lt. Dale R. Anderson; 2nd Lt. Harvey Berman; 2nd Lt. Charles C. Boone; Tech Sgt. Perry J. Humphries; Tech Sgt. Dan W. Lee; Staff Sgt. Wendell G. Mettert; Staff Sgt. Alfred H. Geibel; Staff Sgt. Raymon L. Pavilina; Staff Sgt. Willis D. Culps
- B-24 #436: Tech Sgt. Stanley Marshall; Tech Sgt. Alvin Heath
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 198 x 250-pound bombs and 8 x 300-pound bombs
RESULTS: For the second day in a row, the B-24s fail to find the correct target and bomb an auxiliary airstrip by mistake. Bombs hit runway and revetments, and possibly destroy one aircraft.
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS:
- Ki-43 pilots from the 11th Sentai and 25th Sentai, including Capt. Nakakazu Ozaki
- Ki-44 pilots from the 85th Sentai
AIRCRAFT LOSSES:
- B-24 #329 is shot down over Canton, most likely by Capt. Nakakazu Ozaki. Five of the crew bail out and eventually return to their unit (Swanson; Boone; Lee; Geibel; Culps).
- One P-40 is lost in a forced landing, though the pilot (Zavakos) is uninjured.
- Enemy fighters inflict minor damage on four more B-24s. Sgt. Blair in #249 is wounded in the leg by a 20mm cannon shell fragment.
- B-24 gunners claim to shoot down at least 17 Japanese fighter aircraft, and P-40 pilots of the 28th Provisional Fighter Squadron claim three more. Japanese losses are unknown, but certainly nowhere near the 20 planes claimed by American aviators.
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).