OBJECTIVE: Feint towards Hong Kong to throw off the Japanese and then bomb river shipping and Tien Ho airfield at Canton.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~10:15 a.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: 22 P-40E and P-40K from the 16th, 75th, and 76th Fighter Squadrons (23rd Fighter Group) and ten B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group). All aircraft are from the China Air Task Force (10th Air Force). This raid involves more American aircraft than any other raid flown in the Pearl River Delta thus far in the war.
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: P-40s: Col. Robert L. Scott; Lt. Col. Clinton D. “Casey” Vincent; Major John R. Alison; Major Bruce K. Holloway; Captain Burrall Barnum; Captain Edmund R. Goss; Captain John F. Hampshire; Captain Elmer W. Richardson; 1st Lt. Jack R. Best; 1st Lt. H.M. Blackstone; 1st Lt. Edward H. Calvert; 1st Lt. Dallas A. Clinger; 1st Lt. William W. Druwing; 1st Lt. Charles H. Dubois; 1st Lt. John D. Lombard; 1st Lt. Martin W. Lubner; 1st Lt. Robert A. O’Neill; 1st Lt. Harold K. Stuart; 1st Lt. Charles Tucker; 1st Lt. Heath H. Wayne; 2nd Lt. George R. Barnes; 2nd Lt. R.L. Tempest
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Unknown
RESULTS: The merchant vessel Ryokusei Maru (1,907 GRT) is heavily damaged by the B-25s. Damage to Tien Ho airfield is unknown.
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: ~Twelve Ki-27 and Ki-43 fighters are in the air, possibly from the 25th or 33rd Sentai, and at least one Ki-45 twin-engine fighter from an unknown unit.
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: American P-40 pilots claim to shoot down at least 17 Ki-43s, 3 Ki-27s, and 1 Ki-45, and to destroy a trimotor transport plane on the ground at White Cloud airfield. Japanese records do not indicate any pilots lost on this day, but since multiple American pilots reported seeing parachutes during the dogfight, at least one Japanese fighter was shot down. No American P-40s are lost, but two make forced landings in friendly territory. All B-25s return safely.
SOURCES:
- Original mission reports in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. I could not locate the relevant mission report for the B-25s in the archives, however.
- The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War Two: A Graphic Presentation of the Japanese Naval Organization and List of Combatant and Non-Combatant Vessels Lost or Damaged in the War from the Military History Section of the General Headquarters of the US Far East Command in 1952.
- Japanese Army Fighter Aces, 1931-45, by Ikuhiko Hata, Yasuho Izawa, and Christopher Shores.
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).