OBJECTIVE: P-40 pilots fly a “diversionary alert” over Canton
TIME OVER TARGET: ~12:30 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Seven P-40s from the 74th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Bell, Lt. Lundy, Lt. Meyer, Lt. Strantz, Bates, Lt. Gordon F. Bennett, La Touralle
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None
RESULTS: None
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Two Japanese fighters are spotted, but they do not engage.
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: One P-40 is lost when Lt. Bennett develops engine trouble and bails out.
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).