OBJECTIVE: Bomb Whampoa docks in Canton
TIME OVER TARGET: ~4:00 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Six P-38s from the 449th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Captain L.O. Gregg; 2nd Lt. Weber
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Unknown, but since only four of the six P-38s carry bombs, probably 8 x 500-pound general-purpose bombs
RESULTS: P-38 pilots claim three hits on Whampoa docks
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Up to seventeen Ki-44-II led by Captain Yukiyoshi Wakamatsu.
AIRCRAFT LOSSES:
- American pilots claim to shoot down one Ki-44 and damage another, but Japanese records indicate no pilots are lost over Canton on this date.
- Captain Wakamatsu and his pilots score multiple hits on two P-38s, though both return to base safely.
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).