Lights came on again.
Started a Retreat, with daily talks, and private readings in evenings.
Terrific air raid, planes like great silver birds.
Diary pages from this date
Unloaded rice from junk 7-11 p.m. Electricity resumed
Heavy p.m. Raid 36 planes
Big raid. Family jitters. Saw about 30. Beautiful sight glittering in sun. Said to be China based. Officially six downed. Rumour 200 school kids killed Hung Hom school.
Fine, warm. NE wind.
Cookhouse construction & woodchopping.
Heavy raid on HK by about 30 or 40 big bombers - & fighter escort – at 4pm. A.A. fire useless & no apparent air opposition. All clear at 5.15pm.
Didn’t see Steve because everything was late.
No papers.
Rice being shifted to godowns all day. 2000 bags in by midn’t.
The raid was reported in the Hongkong News:
OBJECTIVE: Reconnaissance flight over Canton and Hong Kong
RESULTS: Pre-strike photos are taken of Victoria Harbor. Pilot reports that numerous ships are in port. No photos are taken of the Canton airbases, which are obscured by cloud.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~9:45 to 9:55 a.m. over Hong Kong
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: One F-5B (#388) from Flight B, 21st Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Lt. Neely
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: One aircraft of unknown type/unit attempts without success to intercept Lt. Neely’s aircraft.
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).
Photos of the bombing of the Kowloon Docks at Hung Hom on 16 Oct 1944, which also hit many of the houses in the area, killing many civilians.
