OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton
TIME OVER TARGET: ~4:15 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Three B-25s from 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group) escorted by 3 P-40Es from 23rd Fighter Group. All aircraft are from the China Air Task Force (10th Air Force).
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Major William E. Bayse (B-25s); Major Edward F. Rector (P-40s)
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Chinese 50-kg incendiary bombs and 17-kg fragmentation bombs
RESULTS: At least six Japanese aircraft bombed on the ground at Tien Ho
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: 50 to 60 Japanese aircraft reported on ground at Tien Ho. None spotted in the air.
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None
SOURCES: Original 11th Bomb Squadron mission report in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. I do not, however, have the mission report for the P-40s.
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).