OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield in Canton. This is the first raid on a target in the Pearl River delta by the China-based 14th Air Force, the successor unit to the China Air Task Force (a unit of the India-based 10th Air Force). This is also the first raid on a Pearl River delta target by the 308th Heavy Bomb Group, and only the unit’s second combat mission.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~1:30 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:
- Ten B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group)
- Sixteen B-24s from the 373rd, 374th, 375th and 425th Bomb Squadrons (308th Heavy Bomb Group)
- Twenty-four P-40s from the 16th and 75th Fighter Squadrons (23rd Fighter Group)
All aircraft are from the 14th Air Force commanded by General Claire Chennault.
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:
- P-40s: Lt. Col. Clinton D. Vincent; Major John R. Alison; Major Harry M. Pike; 1st Lt. Lauren Barneby; 1st Lt. Joseph H. Griffin; 1st Lt. Melvin B. Kimball; 1st Lt. James W. Little; 2nd Lt. Robert L. Tempest
- B-24s: Brigadier General Howard Davidson (traveling as an observer while on an inspection trip from Washington); Colonel Eugene H. Beebe; Captain Adler; Staff Sgt. Israel Blumenfeld; Tech Sgt. Edward J. McCon; Tech Sgt. Harold A. Mcquate
- B-25s: Captain Douglas C. Weaver; 1st Lt. John B. Lyman; 2nd Lt. Frederick B. Lee; Staff Sgt. Eldon E. Shirley; Staff Sgt. George A. Kelly; Staff Sgt. Hubert F. Blades; Staff Sgt. Thomas H. Cave (all KIA)
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: The B-24s drop 1,000-pound bombs and propaganda leaflets. The B-25s drop a mix of 30-pound fragmentation bombs and 100-pound demolition bombs.
RESULTS: The bombing ignites a substantial fire among buildings near the runway that burns for at least two days and generates considerable smoke. American bomb-damage assessments claim 25 buildings and a large aircraft hanger are destroyed.
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Ki-43-IIs from the 33rd Sentai
AIRCRAFT LOSSES:
- One B-25 is lost with its crew over Canton, possibly due to the premature explosion of its fragmentation bombs. The crewmembers (listed above) are all presumed killed in action.
- One P-40 belly-lands in friendly territory due to fuel exhaustion, but the pilot walks away.
- B-24 gunners Blumenfeld, McCon, and Mcquate (see above) claim three enemy fighters shot down and American fighter pilots claim another thirteen. However, Japanese records suggest that only Capt. Yuto Sakashita and 1st Lt. Ichiro Sakai of the 33rd Sentai are lost over Canton on this day.
SOURCES:
- Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama
- 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).