OBJECTIVE: Fly a series of staggered single-aircraft night raids to harass airbases at Canton and Hong Kong, which will prevent JAAF pilots from flying night bombing missions.
RESULTS: At Canton, three B-25s bomb Tien Ho airbase, two B-25s bomb White Cloud airbase, and three B-25s bomb godowns and factories in Canton. At Hong Kong, two B-25s bomb Kai Tak airfield, one B-25 overshoots the target and puts bombs into the harbor, and one B-25 bombs Kowloon wharves with 250-pound bombs that likely fall inland in residential areas of Yaumatei and the grounds of Whitfield Barracks. The BAAG reports that the bombing of Whitfield Barracks causes 70-80 Japanese and Indian casualties.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~8:30 to 11:30 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Twelve B-25s from 491st Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Lt. Cullen
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: 132 x 100-pound bombs; 32 x 250-pound bombs; 12 x 100-pound fragmentation bombs; 9 x 100-pound fragmentation cluster 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).