OBJECTIVE: Tien Ho airfield at Canton is the primary target, but when ground fog obscures the airbase, the bombers hit gasoline storage facilities and godowns instead.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~4:15 a.m.
AMERICAN SQUADRONS AND AIRCRAFT: Three B-25s from 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group, China Air Task Force)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:
- B-25 #18: Lt. Col. Herbert “Butch” Morgan; 1st Lt. Joseph L. Skeldon, 2nd Lt. Charles H. Dearth, 2nd Lt. Joseph F. Dockwiller, Staff Sgt. Lawrence W. Bowen, Sgt. Joseph L. Soikowski
- B-25 #63: 1st Lt. Elmer L. Tarbox, 2nd Lt. Mason O. Brown, Sgt. Robert W. Hawkins, Corporal Karl H. May, Staff Sgt. Robert L. Propst
- B-25 #92: 1st Lt. Wilmer E. McDowell, 2nd Lt. Wilson M. Thomas, 2nd Lt. Carl F. Gordon, 2nd Lt. Harry G. Locknane, Sgt. John O. Van Marter, Staff Sgt. George B. Crandall
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 50-kg incendiary bombs and 17-kg fragmentation bombs
RESULTS: Unknown, though bomber crews report up to twenty fires resulted from the bombing
JAPANESE SQUADRONS AND AIRCRAFT: Nightfighters from an unknown squadron attempt to intercept without success
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).