11 Feb 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Air strike against Kai Tak airfield

RESULTS: Twelve B-25s bomb Kai Tak.  Four P-40s are shot down in a dogfight with defending Japanese fighters.

TIME OVER TARGET: ~1:37 p.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:

• Six P-40s from the 74^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group)
• Fourteen P-40Ns from the 32^nd Provisional Fighter Squadron (3^rd Fighter Group, Chinese American Composite Wing)
• Six B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group)
• Six B-25s from the 2^nd Provisional Bomb Squadron (1^st Medium Bomb Group, Chinese American Composite Wing)

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• 32^nd PFS: Major William L. Turner; 1^st Lt. Keith G. Lindell; 1^st Lt. Thomas M. Maloney; 1^st Lt. John R. Dehaven; 1^st Lt. Donald W. Kerr; Captain C.W. Hung; 1^st Lt. S.L. Wu; 1^st Lt. Y. Wu; 1^st Lt. Y.T. Tien; 2^nd Lt. L.C. Teng; 2^nd Lt. S.C. Wang; 2^nd Lt. W. Yu; 2^nd Lt. C.Y. Mo; 2^nd Lt. Y.C. Yang (楊應求少尉)
• 74^th FS: Major Barry Melloan; Lt. Aston; Lt Oren Bates; Lt. Robert Gibeault; 1^st Lt. Samuel Kinsey; Lt. George Lee
• 2^nd BS: Irving L. Branch; Chester M. Conrad; John B. Sanders; T.F. Folay; T.H. Chang; C.K. Tsao (all aircraft commanders)
• 11^th BS:
  • B-25 #426: Lt. Col. Joseph B. Wells; 1^st Lt. James W. Funk; 1^st Lt. Charles A. Lutton; 1^st Lt. Robert D. Guma; Staff Sgt. Laurier R. Dumas; Staff Sgt. Hadsall D. Barnhouse; Staff Sgt. William J. Holtz
  • B-25 #425: 1^st Lt. Theodore J. Michel; 2^nd Lt. Daniel J. Phiefer; 2^nd Lt. Herbert M. Edwards; Staff Sgt. Robert L. Harmon; Tech Sgt. Lawrence W. Jarrett; Tech Sgt. Herbert G. Passarino
  • B-25 #415: 1^st Lt. William R. Monroe; 2^nd Lt. Orrin G. Zebarth; 2^nd Lt. Walter L. Wade; Tech Sgt. Thomas R. Touchstone; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker; 1^st Lt. Thomas B. Cox
  • B-25 #429: 1^st Lt. Robert R. Schuppert; 2^nd Lt. Stanley A. Johnson; 2^nd Lt. Merry A. Mansy[?]; Staff Sgt. Alfred Carraway; Sgt. Paul A. LeFrancois; Private William C. Whaley
  • B-25 #401: 1^st Lt. George R. Laverell; 2^nd Lt. Carl R. Kostol; 2^nd Lt. Earl C. Stone; 2^nd Lt. Richard W. Sherman; Corporal Dennis E. Conley; Sgt. Jean W. Walburn; 1^st Lt. Robert C. Culp
  • B-25 #423: 1^st Lt. James J. Harnett; 1^st Lt. Harold E. Sparhawk; 2^nd Lt. James F. Butler; 1^st Lt. Richard C. Combs; Staff Sgt. Marino R. Galluzzo; Staff Sgt. Arthur B. Smith  

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 34 x 500-pound bombs are dropped by the 11^th Bomb Squadron.  The ordnance dropped by the 2^nd Bomb Squadron is unknown, but likely the same.

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: An estimated twenty Ki-43s and/or Ki-44s, possibly from the 11^th Sentai and/or 85^th Sentai

AIRCRAFT LOSSES:

• 74^th FS: Lt. Lee and Lt. Bates are shot down, but both escape and evade with the assistance of the BAAG
• 3^rd FG: Lt. Kerr is shot down, but escapes and evades with help of communist guerrillas; Lt. Yang is shot down and dies of wounds
• P-40 pilots claim to shoot down six Japanese fighters, though Japanese records do not indicate that any Japanese pilots were lost over Hong Kong on this date

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).