OBJECTIVE: Fly nocturnal sea sweep mission to detect and sink Japanese ships in the South China Sea.
RESULTS: No enemy ships are detected during the sea sweep, so the aircraft commander, Lt. Clendenen, opts to bomb the Royal Navy dockyard. Bombs fall in vicinity of the dockyard, but damage is unknown.
TIME OVER TARGET: Unknown, but presumably after nightfall
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: One B-24
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Lt. Clendenen
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 12 x 500-pound bombs
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).