16 Mar 1944, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield at Canton

RESULTS: Aircraft fail to find target due to cloud cover and return to base without dropping any bombs

TIME OVER TARGET: ~8:15 to 8:45 a.m.

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:

• Eight P-40s from the 74^th Fighter Squadron (23^rd Fighter Group)
• Eight P-40s from the Chinese American Composite Wing (squadrons unknown, but possibly 28^th or 32^nd Provisional Fighter Squdron)
• Nine B-25s from the 11^th Bomb Squadron (341^st Medium Bomb Group)
• Eleven B-25s (most likely 1^st Bomb Squadron, 1^st Medium Bomb Group) from the Chinese American Composite Wing

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:

• 74^th FS: Major Barry Melloan; Lt. Bear; Lt. Duffy; Lt. Robert Gibeault; Lt. Strantz; Lt. [Kenneth?] La Tourelle; Lt. [Virgil A?] Butler; Lt. Cousins
• 11^th BS:
  • B-25 #431: 1^st Lt. Edward J. Pawlowski; 1^st Lt. Delwyn F. Ritzdorf; 1^st Lt. Raymond J. Mazanowski; 1^st Lt. Robert D. Guma; Tech Sgt. Robert C. Appleby; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Steiner; Staff Sgt. Thomas P. Kolenda
  • B-25 #436: Captain Robert S. Thompson; 1^st Lt. Harold Rochelle; 1^st Lt. Frank H. Gibson; Staff Sgt. Ray T. Hamilton; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Lucas; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker
  • B-25 #429: 1^st Lt. James J. Harnett; 1^st Lt. William F. Angell; 2^nd Lt. James F. Butler; Tech Sgt. Henry M. Ellis; Staff Sgt. Michael Ilnicki; Staff Sgt. Frederick C. DeWitt
  • B-25 #428: 1^st Lt. Robert A. Nice; 1^st Lt. Richard M. Gramling; 1^st Lt. Arthur I. Blechman; 1^st Lt. Herbert I. Robinson; Tech Sgt. Eugene E. Banzhof; Staff Sgt. Earl F. Porter; Sgt. Arbun K. Griffen
  • B-25 #427: Captain Theodore J. Michel; 2^nd Lt. Daniel J. Pfiefer; 1^st Lt. Robert B. Fischborn; Staff Sgt. Robert L. Harmon; Staff Sgt. George E. Zecher; Tech Sgt. Lawrence W. Jarrett
  • B-25 #432: 1^st Lt. Carl J. LaValle; Lt. Colonel Joseph B. Wells; 1^st Lt. Thomas B. Cox; 1^st Lt. Clyde H. Wells; Tech Sgt. Robert A. Petrucelli; Staff Sgt. Lambert B. Regstock; Staff Sgt. Harold J. Coleman
  • B-25 #425: 1^st Lt. Denning M. Perdew; 2^nd Lt. Raymond S. Horey; 2^nd Lt. Earl C. Stone; Staff Sgt. Steven Simon; Sgt. William C. Whaley
  • B-25 #415: 1^st Lt. Dow J. Richter; 1^st Lt. Stanley A. Johnson; 2^nd Lt. Gerald M. O’Day; Staff Sgt. Walter P. White; Staff Sgt. Frederick T. Kaveney; Private First Class Herbert Morrison

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None

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).